LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

TV 



Shelf JfUdX 1> 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



CHEDDAR 



CHEESE MAKING 



BY 



JOHN W. DECKER, B. Agr. 

Instructor in Dairying, University of Wisconsin 



PRICE, $1.00 



ILLUSTRATED 



MADISON, WIS. 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 

1895 



jul 1 i«y 



y-cteL 



Copyrighted 1893 and 1895 
By John W. Decker 



Tracy, Gibbs & Co., Printers, Madison, Wis. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PART. I. 

PAGE. 

Chap. I. Milk I 

Chap. II. The fermentations of Milk 6 

Chap. III. The rennet test 14 

Chap. IV. First steps in cheese making 24 

Chap. V. Cutting the curd 28 

Chap. VI. Heating the curd . . 31 

Chap. VII. Drawing the whey; or, Dipping the curd 36 

Chap. VIII. Milling the curd 44 

Chap. IX. Salting the curd 51 

Chap. X. Pressing the curd 56 

Chap. XI. Curing of -the cheese 68 

Chap. XII. Shipping the cheese 77 

Chap. XIII. Judging cheese 82 

PART II. 

Chap. I. Construction of factories. 88 

Chap. II. Equipment of factories 100 

Chap. III. Milk testing 105 

Chap. IV. Hints on operating the factory 118 

Chap. V. The milk producer's responsibility 122 

Chap. VI. Organization of Cheese Factory Association 126 

PART III. 

Questions on Part I and Part II 132 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



In the past few years great advances have been made in cheese 
making, and for the old rule of thumb, definite scientific reasons have 
been substituted. 

During the first three years of the Wisconsin Dairy School, the 
theoretical part of the instruction in cheese making was given by a 
series of lectures and quizzes along with the practical work. 

All books treating on cheese making were either out of date, be- 
cause of the rapid advance in knowledge on the subject, or were un- 
fitted for use as text books in a school. 

The instructor has learned by experience that in order to have the 
students properly grasp the subject before them, they must have a 
text book for use along with the lectures and quizzes, in short, with 
the advent of dairy schools, cheese making in pedagogic form was a 
necessity. 

There are other cheese makers who are not students in dairy schools 
and it was hoped that they might also find information in the book 
that would help them. This was proven to be true by the rapidity 
with which the first edition was exhausted, and the present edition 
has been revised with a view to more fully meeting the needs of such 
persons. 

Part I deals with the fermentations of milk and the process of mak- 
ing. 

Part II deals with the construction and operation of factories. 

Part III consists of questions which are answered in the text of 
parts I and II. The page on which the answer to the question may 
be found is indicated at the end of the question. 

Important Points are indicated by paragraph headings, and usually 
the answer can be immediately found by glancing at these. 

The writer believes that the questions in Part III will not only be 
helpful to students of dairy schools in mastering the subject, but that 
they will also be of aid to all students of cheese making. 

A careful study of the questions is urged, however simple they may 
seem, as an accurate knowledge of the details and the reasons why, 
of the various steps in the process is absolutely necessary in order to 
master the profession. 



CHAPTER I. 

MILK. 

Composition of Milk. Milk is a secretion of mam- 
mals for the nourishment of their young. If we ex- 
amine the milks of different mammals, we will find 
that they are composed of the same substances, but 
that these substances vary in their proportions, as will 
be seen from the following table giving the composi- 
tion of milks from different origins: 

Human. Cow. Mare. Goat. Ewe. Sow 
Albuminoids (protein com- 
pound) 2.5 3.2 1.7 5.0 4.5 6.2 

Fat 3- 6 3-7 .8 3-7 4-2 5-8 

Milk Sugar 6.5 4.8 8.8 4.5 5.0 5.3 

Ash (chiefly Phosphates).... .5 .7 .4 .6 .7 .9 

Total solids 13. 1 12.4 11. 7 13.8 14.4 18.2 

Water 86.9 87.6 88.3 86.2 85.6 81.8 

As American cheese is made from cows' milk only, 
no consideration will be given any of the other kinds 
of milk. 

That we may have a better idea of milk, let us look 
at the nature of the substances in its composition. 

Albuminoids. The albuminoids or protein com- 
pounds contain about sixteen per cent, of nitrogen, 
and are the muscle forming part of the milk. 

Milk Sugar. The sugar of milk crystallizes in hard 
crystals, which are neither as soluble nor as sweet as 
cane or ordinary sugar. Commercial milk sugar is used 
largely in the manufacture of lactated foods. 

[1] 



2 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

Ash. The ash is the mineral substance left when 
milk is burned. Chemical analysis shows it to con- 
sist largely of phosphates. • The ash is the bone-form- 
ing part of the milk. 

Water. The albuminoids,* milk sugar and ash are 
all in solution in the eighty-seven per cent, of water. 

Fat. The fat of the milk is not in solution, but in 
the form of little globules suspended in the liquid por- 
tion, which form is called an emulsion. 




MICROSCOPIC MILK AS DRAWN FROM THE COW. 

The globules vary in size from one two-thousandth 
to one ten-thousandth of an inch in diameter. By 
one ten-thousandth of an inch is meant that it would 
take ten thousand of these little globules placed side 
by side to make a row an inch long. 

*The casein, which is an albuminoid, is thought by some authori- 
ties not to be in solution, but in the form of a thin gelatinous mass. 
This point however is disputed, and for all practical purposes we can 
speak of it as in solution. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 3 

Colostrum Milk. The first milk given by a cow 
just after calving is called colostrum milk, and is 
much more viscous than normal milk, sometimes be- 
ing nearly as thick as syrup. The components of the 
milk are not in their normal proportions, the albumin- 
oids sometimes amounting to fifteen per cent, of the 
milk, while the fat may be less than two per cent. 
Under the microscope, cells which have scaled off 
from the inside of the udder can be seen floating 
about, and while these dead particles of tissue are in 
the milk, it is unfit for cheese. After four or five 
milkings the milk will appear normal, but it should not 
be used for a week. 




MICROSCOPIC MILK AFTER STANDING A SHORT TIME. 

When milk is taken into the calf's stomach, it is di- 
gested by the juices secreted by the same. If we 
take a stomach and soak it in water or brine, two fer- 
ments, rennet and pepsin, the active principles in di- 
gestion, are dissolved; and if we add this solution to 



4 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

milk, the milk will be curdled. The part of the milk 
that is curdled is the casein, which is the larger por- 
tion of the albuminoids. About one-fourth of the 
albuminous substance in the milk is like the white of 
an egg, and is not coagulated by rennet. By heating 
the whey after the casein has been first coagulated, 
this part will be precipitated, and therefore seems to 
be identical with the albumen of an egg, which is also 
coagulated by heat, as is seen in cooking, and is 
called lactalbumen. 

Whey. In the manufacture of cheese the milk is 
curdled by rennet, and the curd cut into small pieces 
from which the liquid portion, or whey, is expelled. 
The whey then is the major part of the water of the 
milk, which carries with it nearly all the soluble por- 
tions, namely: the albumen, milk sugar, ash, and also 
a small portion of the fat, as the very small globules 
break away from the curd in cutting it. 

Curd. The curd, or green cheese, is the coag- 
ulated casein which holds in its meshes most of the 
fat, some water, and small portions of the albumen, 
milk sugar and ash. The water in green cheese is 
about one-third of its weight. We look upon green 
cheese and curd as identical, for green cheese is sim- 
ply curd pressed together. 

Fat Necessary for Cheese. While the casein may 
be said to be the cheesy part of the milk, still the 
quantity and quality of the cheese produced is greatly 
affected by the quantity of fat present in the milk; in 
fact, the real value of milk for cheese is determined 
by the amount of fat it contains. Without the fat the 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 5 

casein will dry out very rapidly and become very hard. 
The fat not only helps the casein to hold the water 
from excessive evaporation, but it seems to increase 
the capacity of it for absorbing water. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FERMENTATIONS OF MILK. 

Cheese making a Process of Fermentation. The 

process of cheese making is a process of fermentation 
from beginning to end. It will therefore be necessary 
to consider the different kinds of ferments, and how 
they act in the process. There are two general kinds 
of ferment, namely: organized and unorganized. 

Organized Ferments. The organized ferments 
are so called because they are the result of the growth 
of minute vegetable organisms. There are millions of 
these organisms in the milk, and in their growth they 
decompose the components of the milk, forming vary- 
ing decomposition products. Nearly all the trouble 
we have in cheese making is due to the action of defi- 
nite living vegetable cells that have the power of 
manufacturing certain decomposition products; on the 
other hand, we could not produce fine cheese without 
the presence of certain forms of bacteria that are able 
to change the milk, producing the fine desired flavors. 

Lactic Ferment. The souring of milk is produced 
by the growth of particular species of organized fer- 
ments. These organisms so affect the milk sugar that it 
is changed into lactic acid. When the lactic fermenta- 
tion is not properly handled and there is too much lactic 
acid formed in the curd, we have a sour cheese, and on 

[6] 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 7 

the other hand when the curd is put to press before 
the lactic fermentation has run its course, gas is pro- 
duced, which forms large, round, smooth holes, termed 
' 'Swiss holes," so-called because they resemble the 
holes found in Swiss cheese. 

Important Point in Cheese making. The most 
important point in cheese making is to know how to 
control the lactic fermentations. 

Pinholey Curds due to Bacteria. But the ordi- 
nary souring of milk, or lactic fermentation as it is 
called, is not the only fermentation due to germs or 
bacteria. Through the action of the lactic ferment 
the milk sugar is decomposed, but in other fermenta- 
tions the casein is attacked, and gas formed that col- 
lects in little holes about the size of the head of a pin, 
and such a curd is therefore known as "pinholey." 

Butyric Ferment. Bacteriologists have separated 
quite a number of peculiar ferments that are produced 
by distinct species of bacteria; for instance, there is 
the butyric fermentation, in which butyric acid is the 
decomposition product formed, and the alcoholic fer- 
mentation in which alcohol and carbonic acid gas are 
formed. 

Bitter Milk — How Caused. There is also some- 
times a bitter taste to milk which usually goes with 
the butyric fermentation, but bacteriologists have 
shown it to be the result of a distinct fermentation. 

Alkaliue Fermentation. Another peculiar fer- 
mentation of milk is the alkaline curdling, in which the 
milk curdles apparently in the same manner as in or- 



8 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



dinary souring, but it shows a distinct alkaline reac- 
tion. "Ropy" and "slimy" milk are also fermenta- 
tions that are brought about by the action of bacteria. 




Yeast Plants 



Bacteria. It has been said that these fermentations 
are due to minute living organisms. They are, in 
fact, little plants consisting of but a single cell, and 
these little cells live and grow in a similar way as do 
larger plants that we can see without a microscope. 

On the outside is the cell wall which resembles the 
shell surrounding an egg- Inside of the cell wall is 
the protoplasm, or living element of the organism. 
Some of these single cells are spherical in form, and 
are known as cocci (singular, coccus), others are rod- 
like, and are called bacilli (singular, bacillus), meaning 
a rod, and the yeasts or saccharomyces, which grow 
in sugar solutions and are oval in form, are still another 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 9 

class. The protoplasm or living element inside of 
the cell wall is sensitive to light and heat just as in 
the higher order of plants; in fact, these characteris- 
tics are the characteristics of life, and anaesthetics, 
such as chloroform and ether, will cause a cessation 
of their vital activities, and the fermentation ceases 
entirely because the protoplasm is killed, or is sus- 
pended until the irritating agent is removed. 

Difference between Organized and Unorganized 
Ferments, This is the distinguishing difference be- 
tween organized and unorganized ferments, the latter 
class not being affected by anaesthetics. For instance, 
rennet will curdle^ milk, and its action is hastened or 
retarded according to the temperature of the milk, the 
same as organized ferments, but it is not affected by 
these protoplasmic poisons. 

Rennet is a good representative of the unorganized 
ferments or enzymes, as they are called, with which 
we have to deal in cheese making. 

Enzymes. The enzymes do not seem to be living 
organisms, but are more like a chemical in their action. 
On the other hand, they hardly seem to be purely 
chemical, for a chemical will be used up by entering 
into another combination, but an enzyme may be 
used over and over again. 

Enzymes sometimes produced by Organized Fer- 
ments. While enzymes are distinct from organized 
ferments, they are often produced as a result of the 
growth of certain organisms. In the alkaline curdling 
of milk, mentioned among the organized ferments, 



IO CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

there is an enzyme produced as a result of the growth 
of the bacteria, and then the curdling is accomplished 
by the enzyme in a manner similar to, if not quite 
identical with that of rennet. Rennet and pepsin, 
the active part of the rennet extract used in cheese 
making, are both enzymes. 

Rennet, where found. Rennet which was first iso- 
lated by Hammersten, is found in the stomachs of 
calves, lambs and pigs, and also in birds and fishes, 
and in some plants. 

It will be remembered, by referring to the table 
showing the composition of milk, that there is 0.7 
per cent, ash in cow's milk, which is a comparatively 
small quantity. 

Phosphates required. Part of this ash is in the 
form of phosphates, and though small in quantity, 
rennet will not curdle the milk without their presence. 
It is thought that casein forms a chemical combina- 
tion with the phosphates in the form known as casein 
tricalcium phosphate, which is soluble, but when ren- 
net is added to the milk, it is changed to calcium 
phosphate and an insoluble casein compound which is 
the cheese. 

Effect of Salt on Milk. If common salt or magne- 
sium sulphate is added to the milk in sufficient quan- 
tity, the casein will be precipitated. 

Effect of Heat on Rennet. Rennet will not curdle 
milk at a very low temperature, but as the tempera- 
ture is raised it will begin to work and act with in- 
creasing rapidity until at a point above iOO° F. it is 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. II 

injured. By putting cold rennet into warm milk it 
may work faster up to 120 or 130° F. , but when the 
rennet in weak solutions is heated to 105° F. it begins 
to be injured. A strong solution maybe held at 150 
for fifteen minutes without being entirely destroyed, 
but it will be rendered much weaker. These high tem- 
peratures do not destroy the power of the rennet in- 
stantly but gradually. 

Rennet does not Exhaust Itself. As has been 
said concerning enzymes, rennet does not seem to 
spend its energy, but will act over and over again. If 
we coagulate a quantity of milk, and apply the whey 
to a like quantity of milk, the milk will be coagu- 
lated; we could do this indefinitely, if it were not for 
getting a larger volume of whey than we have of 
milk. 

Effect of Acidity on the Action of Rennet. It has 

been said that the rapidity in the action of rennet is 
greatly affected by the temperature of the milk, but 
we will find, if the temperature of the milk is held 
constant, the more lactic acid there is in the milk the 
faster the rennet will act, or if any acid be artificially 
added to the milk in quantities not sufficient to coag- 
ulate it, the action of the rennet will be hastened, and 
on the other hand if alkali be added to the milk, the 
action of the rennet will be retarded. 

Rennet Extracts not alike. Another cause for 
varying rapidity of action is the difference in the 
strength of the rennet extract used. Rennets vary as 
to the amount of ferment contained in them, and it is 



12 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

next to impossible to get two lots of rennet extract 
exactly alike. 

Rennet is sometimes concentrated in the form of 
tablets or rennet powder, but even these vary in 
strength, and they are concentrated to such a degree 
that it is difficult to measure them closely, and on that 
account extract is preferable. 

What Rennet Extract is. Rennet extract is a so- 
lution of rennet and pepsin in strong brine. A rennet, 
as we buy it on the market, is a calfs stomach, which 
has been cleaned and filled with salt and allowed to 
dry. The best rennets come from Bavaria. 

How Rennet Extract is Made. Rennet extract is 
made in the following manner: 

Prepare a sufficient number of rennets, say five 
hundred, by splitting them open so that the water can 
get into them. Then take an oak barrel and put the 
rennets into it, and fill with water until they are well 
covered. 

Possibly the barrel might be nearly filled with water, 
but we should not have more water than is necessary 
to dissolve the ferment. 

A little salt should be added to the water, say three 
pounds of salt to one hundred pounds of water. The 
rennets should be stirred up and pounded every day, 
to facilitate the solution of the ferment, and at the 
end of a week the liquid should be drawn off and the 
rennets wrung out with a clothes wringer. They 
should be put into water again and soaked for another 
week, and the same operation gone through with. As 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 1 3 

a usual thing, the ferment has not all been extracted 
from the stomachs till they have been soaked for four 
weeks. The liquid that has been obtained by soaking 
the rennets should be filtered through clean straw, 
charcoal and sand, and then an excess of salt added 
to preserve it. 

The extract should be clear though of a dark color. 
The first sign of the decomposition of rennet extract 
is a muddy appearance. 

If extract is ever prepared by the cheese-maker, 
enough to last the whole season should be made in 
the spring when the weather is cool, and then it should 
be kept in a cool place. 

Reliable Brands to be Preferred. The surest way 
of getting extract that can be depended on, is to buy 
some reliable brand of extract, such as Hansen's. 

The practice of preparing extract every few days is 
wrong, as the strength of each new lot will not be like 
the last, and if used in about the same quantities the 
cheese will not cure evenly. The use of whey as a 
solvent for the rennet is wrong for reasons that are 
obvious after considering the subject of organized 
ferments. 

A comparison of extracts and their relative value, 
will be taken up after the rennet test has been ex- 
plained. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE RENNET TEST. 

Cause of Uneven Cheese. Cheese makers have had 
trouble in getting their cheese even in quality. If the 
milk came in cold in the morning and the rennet was 
added to it immediately on warming it up to the 
proper temperature, the development of acid was re- 
tarded; and if they put it to press before sufficient 
acid had been formed, they would get a sweet flavored 
cheese full of "Swiss holes." If the curd was held in 
the whey long enough for proper development of acid, 
the chances were that it would become whey-soaked, 
and a leaky sour cheese would be formed. Or if the 
milk was over ripe, it would work too fast and the 
cheese would be sour. 

As early as fifty years ago, in England, the cheese 
makers began to learn that if milk was cold, they 
would obtain better results by warming it up to 90 F. 
and allowing it to ripen before adding the rennet; 
but while it improved the quality of the cheese, it did 
not always help them out of the difficulty. 

Rennet Action dependent on Three Things. It has 

been shown that the rapidity with which rennet coagu- 
lates milk is dependent on: — 

1. The strength of the rennet extract. 

2. The temperature of the milk. 

3. The acidity of the milk. 

[14] 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. I 5 

Now if we use the same rennet, at the same temper- 
ature of the milk each time, the variation in the rapid- 
ity with which it coagulates the milk, must be due 
solely to the acidity or ripeness of the milk. 

J. B. Harris discovers the Rennet Test. About 
ten years ago J. B. Harris conceived this idea, and 
used a teacupful of milk from the vat, to which he 
added a teaspoonful of rennet and noted the number of 
seconds required to coagulate the milk. When the milk 
was ripened down to a certain number of seconds, he 
found that he could foretell approximately the time 
that it would take for acid to develop. 

Rennet a Powerful Agent. But if one stops a mo- 
ment to figure on it, he will see that rennet is a very 
powerful agent. If one uses four ounces of extract 
to one thousand pounds of milk, it is one part of 
rennet to four thousand of milk, and sometimes the 
proportion will be as wide as one to sixteen thousand. 
It will be easily seen that since the rennet is such a 
powerful agent, it is not likely to be an entirely accu- 
rate test where a teaspoon is used for measuring the 
rennet, for then it would be difficult to measure exactly 
twice alike. Therefore, in place of the teaspoon, a 
minim or dram graduate was substituted, and for the 
tea cup an eight ounce glass graduate such as drug- 
gists use. This was much better than the other crude 
apparatus for making the test. 

Glass Graduates for Measuring. But the minim 
graduate is funnel shaped, and the top being broad in 
proportion to its volume, the chances for error are 



i6 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



still too great in measuring. In actual practice 
through haste in making the test, two or three drops 
of extract were likely to be left in the narrow bot- 




\Ocz. 



GLIocss GUrccdtcates 



torn of the minim graduate, and the maker would be 
confused in not getting the results he expected by de- 
pending on it. 

J. H. Monrad then proposed a new set of apparatus, 
which, though not so simple, leaves less chance for 
error. 

The Monrad Rennet Test. The apparatus for the 
Monrad test, as used at the Wisconsin Dairy School, 
consists of a 160 c.c. tin cylinder for measuring the 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



17 



milk, a 5 c. c. pipette, a 50 c. c. glass flask, and a half 
pint tin basin. By filling the tin cylinder full it always 
gives the right measure of milk quickly. Measuring 
the milk in a- glass graduate is difficult, as it is hard 
to get the milk just to the mark, and if the glass is 
covered with white milk it is difficult to see the mark. 




MONRAD RENNET TEST. 



The rennet is first measured with the 5 c. c. pipette. 
A pipette (as will be seen by reference to the illustra- 
tion), is a glass tube with a mark on it indicating the 
volume of 5 c. c, and the rennet can very easily be 
measured to the mark, and the tube being narrow 
makes the measurement accurate. The rennet in the 

2 C. C. M. 



1 8 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

pipette is delivered into the 50 c. c. flask, and what 
little rennet adheres to the inside of the pipette is 
rinsed into the flask. This is then filled with water 
to the 50 c. c. mark on the neck, and the solution mixed 
by shaking. The milk, the temperature of which 
should be 86° F. , measured in the tin cylinder, is emptied 
into the half pint basin, and 5 c. c. of the dilute extract 
is measured into the 160 c. c. of milk, and the number 
of seconds required to curdle it noted. If a few specks 
of charcoal are scattered on the milk and the milk 
started into motion around the dish with a thermome- 
ter, the instant of curdling can be noted by the stop- 
ping of the specks. They will stop so suddenly as to 
seem to start back in the opposite direction. 

Use Thermometer to Stir Milk. By using a ther- 
mometer, the temperature can be constantly watched; 
and if the temperature should fall, it can quickly be 
brought back to 86° F. by setting the basin in a pail 
of warm water for five seconds. 

Ripening the Milk. If the milk is ripened so as to 
coagulate in the same number of seconds each day, 
one can tell very closely the time when the whey can 
be drawn off from the curd. It should be ripened to 
a point where in two hours from the time the rennet 
is added to the milk there will be ''one-eighth of an 
inch of acid " on the curd, as we shall see later on. 

With the rennet extract we have been using at the 
Wisconsin Dairy School, the milk when ripened to 
thirty seconds works off in about the right time, but 
the extract is very strong, one ounce being sufficient 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 19 

to coagulate one thousand pounds of milk in twenty 
minutes. If however our rennet extract was so weak 
that it would take four ounces of it to coagulate one 
thousand pounds of the same milk in twenty minutes, 
it would be only one-fourth as strong as the rennet we 
have been using, and the milk would then have to be 
ripened so as to coagulate in one hundred and twenty 
seconds instead of thirty. 

How to Ripen Milk to the Right Point. Starting 
in with the season's work the cheese maker has nothing 
to guide him as to the ripeness of the milk, simply 
because he does not know the strength of the rennet 
extract at his disposal. The first day he makes 
cheese, he must make a rennet test of his milk at the 
time he sets it and then observe how the milk acts. 
If the milk is too sweet, he can calculate about how 
much riper it must be to work just right, and in a few 
days he will have the matter entirely under his con- 
trol. Cheese makers should never neglect to use the 
rennet test, for it enables them to judge definitely the 
condition of their milk. 

When a maker is troubled with tainted milk it is 
often necessary to ripen a little lower than with good 
milk, for the bad flavor, as we have already learned, 
is due to some harmful variety of bacteria which choke 
out the lactic ferments. 

Use of a Starter. In such cases it is well to use a 
starter to make the lactic ferment overcome the other 
ferment. (See p. 24.) 



20 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

Comparisons of Rennet Extracts. Sometimes, as 
has been previously shown, it will take three or four 
ounces of one kind of rennet extract to coagulate one 
thousand pounds of milk at the same temperature and 
time, as it would take one ounce of another extract. 
Perhaps the weaker extract is offered for sale at a 
lower price. By using the rennet test to compare the 
two kinds of extract, one can toll their relative values. 

How to compare Milks. In comparing two lots of 
milk, for that is just what we do with the rennet test, 
we must have all the conditions other than the milk 
the same; that is, we must use the same extract, at 
the same temperature every time, and the test will 
tell us the strength of acid in the milk. 

Now if we want to compare two kinds of rennet ex- 
tract, we must have all the conditions but the extract 
the same; that is, we must make the tests at the same 
temperature, on the same milk, and at the same 
time, for the milk will be ripening and introducing an 
error if we wait. When these conditions are followed 
the test gives us the comparative strength of two kinds 
of rennet extract, and we can afford to pay for them 
in proportion to their strength with perhaps a prefer- 
ence for the stronger extract, other things being 
equal, for the stronger extract will invariably keep 
better. 

An Example in Cost of Extract. Suppose two 
kinds of extract, A and B, are offered to us and the 
price of A is $1.50 and B $1. 25 per gallon. On mak- 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 21 

ing comparative tests of them, we find that A coagu- 
lates the milk in thirty seconds and B in fifty seconds. 
Which extract is the cheaper? 

We simply put the problem into an inverse propor- 
tion. 30 : 5o::.r :$i. 50. 

The product of the means equals the product of the 
extremes. 

50.r=$45.oo 
x= .90 

From which we find that we can afford to pay 90 
cents for B extract and $1.25 is too much for it. 

Aii Example Requiring Time for the Answer. 

Let us continue the above example. Suppose after 
stating the comparative rennet tests of A and B extract 
the question asked was, if four ounces of A will coagu- 
late 1,000 lbs. of milk at 86° F. in twenty minutes, how 
long will it take five ounces of B? We cannot com- 
pare four ounces of A with five ounces of B directly for 
they are not of the same strength. The first step will be 
to find how long it will take four ounces of B, and having 
found it we can in the next step compare four ounces of 
B with five ounces of B. When we use 1,000 lbs. of 
milk and four ounces of rennet, we are simply making a 
rennet test on a large scale, and A and B will have 
the same ratio as though 160 c. c. of milk and .5 c. 
c. of rennet were used. 

First step. We put down our first ratio 30 : 50. 
As x y the time it will take fourounces of B extract, will 
be greater than twenty minutes, we put x in the 
fourth place, and our proportion reads 30 : 50 :: 20 : x. 



22 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

The product of the means equals the product of the 
extremes 

. \ 30^=1,000 

jt= 33^ minutes, 

the time required for four ounces of B to coagulate 
1,000 lbs. of milk. 

Second step. If four ounces of B will coagulate the 
milk in 33^ minutes, five ounces will coagulate it in less 
time than four ounces. We accordingly make the fol- 
lowing proportion: 

4: 5::^: 33I 
5^=133! 
#= 26| minutes 0. E. D. 

An example requiring quantity for an answer. 
Continuing the example how much A extract will 
be required to coagulate 1,000 lbs. of milk at 86° F. 
in thirty minutes? 

If it takes four ounces twenty minutes, less will be 
required to coagulate in thirty minutes. We take our 
first ratio 20 : 30. As x the term we are seeking is to 
be less than four we put it in the third term. Our 
proportion is then: 

20 : 3o::;r : 4 
30^=80 
x=2.66+ oz. Q. E. D. 

Having now seen that all rennet extract is not 
alike, it is evident that when a cheese maker says he 
uses three ounces or four ounces of rennet extract per 
thousand pounds of milk, he gives no definite informa- 
tion. If he says he uses enough to coagulate his milk 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 2$ 

at 86° F. in twenty minutes, it is at once clear what 
he means. 

How Strength of Rennet Should be Expressed. 

The strength of rennet should always be spoken of in 
terms of time and temperature, and not in quantity. 
For instance; if we want to make a fast curing cheese 
we should say: " We use enough rennet to coagulate 
the milk in fifteen to twenty minutes at 86° F. " ; and 
if we want to make a slow curing cheese we should 
say: "Enough to coagulate in thirty to forty min- 
utes at 86° F." 



CHAPTER IV. 

FIRST STEPS IN CHEESE MAKING. 

Stir Milk to Keep Cream Down. While the milk 
is being received it should be stirred in the vat to 
keep the cream down. As soon as the milk has all 
been received and the quantity figured up, the steam 
should be turned on and the milk heated to 86° F., and 
a rennet test made. If the cheese maker is suspicious 
that the milk may be over ripe, he should make a ren- 
net test before the milk in the vat is heated up to 
86 ° F. , by taking his sample for the rennet test in the 
basin in which the test is made and warming it up in 
a pail of warm water. 

If the milk is found to be over ripe, he will have to 
hurry the process to keep ahead of the fermentation. 
On the other hand, if he finds the milk very sweet, 
and that he will have to wait an hour or more for it 
to ripen down, he should use a starter. 

Definition of a Starter. A starter is simply a 
small quantity of milk in which the lactic fermentation 
has been allowed to develop, and there are therefore 
millions upon millions of the desired kinds of bacteria 
in it, and when these are put into the milk in the vat, 
they increase very rapidly and* hasten the ripening of 
the milk. 

What to use for a Starter. The starter should be 
saved from some patron's milk from the morning or 

[24] 



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CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 25 

evening before, and should always be the best flavored 
milk, for the whole vat will be made like it. 

By adding about half water to the starter milk in 
the evening it will not curdle so but that it will mix 
nicely in the vat. 

What not to use for a Starter. A starter should 
not be saved from the vat of milk nor the whey, for 
the starter will then be likely to contain all sorts of 
germs, good, bad, and indifferent, and these will all 
be transmitted from one day's milk to the next; in 
fact, a bad disease might be carried through the milk 
in this way for a whole season. Thick milk may be 
used for a starter, if one is hard pressed, but it is 
better not to let the starter get quite thick. If the 
starter is thick, it should be strained carefully through 
a cloth strainer, for if clots of thick starter get into 
the vat of milk, they will not be colored and may 
leave white specks in the curd. 

Milk should be ripened to a point where in two 
hours from the time the rennet is added to the milk, 
there will be one-eighth of an inch of acid on the curd. 
What is meant by an eighth of an inch of acid will be 
explained further on. 

Milk must not be too Ripe. Milk should never be 
allowed to ripen to a point where it will work too 
fast. In such cases there will be too great a loss of 
fat in the whey, and a small yield of cheese. 

Adding the Color. Until lately cheese color has 
been made from the annatto seed grown in South 
America. Cheaper and stronger color is now being 



26 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

made from aniline, a coal tar product. The public 
seems to be prejudiced against mineral coloring, but 
there is so little of it in the cheese that we doubt if it is 
injurious to health. Personally we like the looks of an 
uncolored cheese best. 

Different markets require different shades. It seems 
to be a general rule that the farther south we go the 
higher the color that is required. Chicago calls for a 
straw color. St. Louis wants it higher, and New Or- 
leans higher still. 

The color should be added before the rennet. It 
should be diluted with water and stirred in thoroughly. 
In the cheese it should not be of a reddish hue. 

Setting the Milk. Having gotten our milk into 
the proper condition we are now ready to set it. It 
should be set at 86° F. As sometimes happens, the 
milk may have accidentally been warmed up to 90 . 
We should rather set the milk at that temperature 
than wait to cool it down, for the milk will be ripen- 
ing while we delay setting it. The only objection to 
setting milk at 90° is that the curd hardens too fast 
to cut it conveniently. If it were not for that fact, I 
see no objection to setting it at 98 . 

For a fast curing cheese we should use enough ren- 
ret to curdle the milk in fifteen to twenty minutes; 
and for a slow curing cheese enough to curdle in thirty 
to forty minutes. 

Rennet should be Diluted. The rennet should be 
diluted, not with milk, (why?) but with a dipperful or 
pailful of water, and then poured into the vat evenly 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 27 

from one end to the other. The water should be 
about 90 F. If above ioo° F. the rennet will be weak- 
ened. The milk should have been thoroughly stirred 
just previous to adding the rennet, and then the ren- 
net should be thoroughly mixed with the milk. The 
stirring should be done gently so that the fat will not 
separate from the milk. 

The milk should be kept in motion for several min- 
utes; the surface should then be stirred gently with 
the bottom of the dipper so that the cream will not 
rise on the surface, and the milk will set, or coagulate, 
and hold it down. The movement of the dipper 
should be kept up for about half the time it takes the 
milk to coagulate, and then a cover should be put 
over the vat to keep the surface of the milk from cool- 
ing off. 

When the Curd is ready to Cut. The curd is ready 
to cut when it will break clean before the finger. The 
index finger is thrust into the curd and pushed along 
through it about half an inch below the surface. The 
curd is first split by the thumb, and when the proper 
firmness is reached it will break as the finger is pushed 
along. If the break is clean, that is, does not leave 
milky but clear whey in the break, the curd is ready 
to be cut. 



CHAPTER V. 

CUTTING THE CURD. 

Through the work of heat and rennet the curd con- 
tracts and expels the whey. In order that this may 
be more readily done, we cut the curd into small cubes 
and raise the temperature. The pieces of curd must be 
of the same size and shape, so that they may expel the 
whey evenly. 

How to Cut a Fast working Curd. When we have 
a fast working or over ripe curd we cut finer and heat 
faster than with a normal working curd. 

The English cheese-makers used to break the curd, 
first with their hands, and then with wires, but the 
curd-knife has entirely superseded that method. 
There are two forms of knives used in the operation. 

Use of Horizontal Curd-Knife. The first is the 
horizontal knife, which has eighteen or twenty blades. 
When it is drawn through the length of the vat, it will 
cut the curd into layers or blankets one half-inch 
thick, by six inches wide, by the length of the vat 
long. Care must be taken not to jam the curd, for if 
it is jammed it will be lost in the whey. The flat 
sides of the blades should not be forced into the curd 
to get the knife into a position to cut it, for they will 
jam the curd in so doing. 

How to Insert the Horizontal Knife. The length 
of the knife is therefore held in a horizontal position, 

[28] 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



29 



the upper end of the knife near the handle resting 
on the top of the end of the vat. The knife is then 
swung down into the curd, the edges of the blades cut- 
ting into the curd and taking a circular course till the 
knife has assumed a vertical position 
parallel with the end of the vat, the 
lower end of the knife resting on the 
bottom of the vat. In this movement 
we have not jammed the curd, but have 
the knife in a position to move it through 
the length of the vat and cut the curd 
into the layers. But these layers are 
only six inches wide and we will have 
to cut the whole vat of curd into these 
layers. Then keeping the knife in the 
curd we must turn it without breaking 
the curd, so that we can run the knife 
to the other end of the vat. Using 
5 the side of the knife next to the uncut 
curd as a center, we turn the knife around through 
i8o c of a circle, and we are ready to carry the knife 
to the other end of the vat. 

How to take the Knife out. When we have cut 
the vat of the curd all up into blankets, we take the 
knife out in the reverse order to which it went in. 

The horizontal knife is now laid aside and the oper- 
ation finished with the perpendicular knife. The blades 
in this knife run in the direction of the longest di- 
mension of the knife. 

We do not, like some cheese makers, wait here for 
the whey to rise over the curd before finishing the 




30 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



operation, for the pieces of curd will get out of place, 
and the curd being harder will not be so easily cut. 
How to insert the Perpendicular 
Knife. We start cutting in the same 
place as we did with the other knife, in- 
serting it in the curd in the same way, 
for it has cross braces which are really 
horizontal blades, and we must avoid 
jamming the curd with them. We draw 
the knife over the same course that the 
other knife went, and we have the curd 
cut into strips one-half inch square and 
the length of the vat long. 

We then cut cross-wise of the vat, be- 
ing careful not to jam the curd, and we 
then have it cut into half inch cubes. 

If we are making up slow working milk, 
this amount of cutting may be enough, 
but if it is necessary to cut finer, it can be done by cut- 
ting alternately lengthwise and crosswise of the vat. 
The strokes should be much quicker now, as the curd 
has been getting harder and finer and will pass be- 
tween the blades, and a quick stroke is therefore 
necessary to cut it. 

Rapidity of Stroke a Factor. When a cheese 
maker says he cuts a curd a certain number of times, 
he does not convey the proper idea, for the rapidity 
of his strokes is a great factor, and if he cuts length- 
wise of the vat six times and crosswise six times, and 
cuts with a slow motion, the curd may not be cut any 
finer than if it had been cut only four times each way 
with a quick stroke. 




PERPENDICULAR 
KNIFE. 



CHAPTER VI. 

HEATING THE CURD. 

Keep Curd Moving, As has been said, the curd 
was cut to allow the whey to escape, but if the curd is 
not kept moving, it will settle to the bottom of the 
vat and mat together again. Therefore, as soon as 
the curd has been cut, begin stirring the curd by hand 
or with a wire basket made for the purpose. 

Do not allow the curd to collect in the corners of 
the vat, and be sure and rub it off from the sides of 
the vat or it will scald on. The whey should look 
clear, and be as free as possible from specks of curd 
floating in it. 

When to Begin Heating. Curd being a poor con- 
ductor of heat, one degree in five minutes is fast 
enough to heat normal working milk. If it is heated 
too fast, it will cook the particles on the outside and 
hold the whey inside of them; and the result will be 
a mottled whey-soaked cheese. The curd does not 
expel the whey as fast at 86° F to 90 F. as it does at 
a little higher temperature, so that the temperature 
should be applied slowly at first. 

Cooking an Over Ripe Curd. If the milk is over 
ripe, however, it expels the whey faster, and the curd 
must be heated faster and higher than normal working 
curd, or there will be the required amount of acid on 

[31] 



32 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



the curd before it is hard enough to remove it from the 
whey. As a usual thing it is not necessary to cook a 
curd above ninety-eight degrees, but a curd must be 
cooked before drawing the whey, no matter if the 
temperature has to be raised to one hundred and ten 
degrees to do it. (For definition of cooked curd see 
p. 35.) It is necessary to cook a fast working curd in 

Wlr * cur^sf.rrcr 




Mc.Pherson Curd Rake 



that way, and if the curd is taking acid too rapidly 
for the heating in the whey to be sufficient to firm the 
curd before the acid is too great, the whey can be 
drawn and the remainder of the firming done in warm 
water, which is run into the vat in place of the whey. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 33 

The water dilutes the acid so that it will not have 
such a bad effect, and at the same time the curd is 
kept apart and warm so that the whey in it can be 
thoroughly expelled. It must not be forgotten, how- 
ever, that an over ripe milk will not yield as well as 
though it were normal, for the acid dissolves the casein 
as is seen in the milky whey when too much acid has 
been developed. 

"Corky Cheese. 5 ' If the acid comes too slow, it 
may not be necessary to cook above 96 F. , for if the 
curd were to be held at 98 for too long a time, too 
much whey would be expelled, the same as though 
a normal ripening curd were held at no° for half an 
hour. The curd would be too dry and resemble skim- 
milk curd or sawdust, and the cheese would cure very 
slowly because of the lack of moisture; it would be 
said to be "corky" because it resembles cork in text- 
ure. If one uses the rennet test carefully, he will 
know just how fast his curd will work and at what 
temperature to cook it. 

Use Correct Thermometers. It is very essential 
to have a correct thermometer. The cheap floating 
thermometers that are usually sold may be five or six 
degrees wrong. The flange thermometers are not so 
handy to use in the vat but are more likely to be cor- 
rect; the glass tube, however, may get loose and slip 
down the scale giving a misleading temperature. The 
best way to get a good thermometer is to pay a good 
fair price, say one or two dollars and buy one that is 
guaranteed to be correct. 

3 C. C. M. 



34 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

Stirring the Curd. To assist the eurd in heating 
evenly and keep it from matting together, it should be 
stirred from the time it is cut till it is cooked. Some 
Canadian factories have a steam stirring apparatus 
which is very handy, but in most factories it is done 
with a rake. 

Curd Rakes. There are two kinds of curd rakes 
in use, the common wooden hay rake and the Mc- 
Pherson curd-rake. 

The rake is put into the whey as soon as the steam 
is turned on, and the curd is started into a rolling 
motion as though it were boiling. The stirring is 
commenced with the rake, teeth up, at one end of the 
vat, and the rake is worked down the length of the 
vat, making the curd roll on the side of the vat oppo- 
site the operator; then back again, making it roll 
on the side toward him. Care should be taken 
that curd does not collect in the corners of the vat; 
nor should it be allowed to roll up into little balls. 
On the other hand it must not be jammed, or fat will 
be lost in the whey at the expense of the yield of 
cheese. 

McPhersou Curd Rake. The McPherson rake has 
large triangular teeth with the base of the triangle 
forming the end of the tooth. This form of rake 
makes it much easier to give the curd a rolling mo- 
tion. Some rakes have only two large teeth, and 
others several, but smaller ones. It is well to have 
two short wooden pins about a half to three-quarters 
of an inch long, in the back of the rake, to prevent 
its jamming the curd on the bottom of the vat. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 35 

How to tell a Proper Cook. One of the most im- 
portant steps in the process is to know when a curd is 
cooked enough. We should then have one-eighth of 
an inch of acid on the curd, and draw the whey. Here 
it will be seen that our judgment comes into play to 
know how fast to heat a curd, to have it just firm 
enough when the acid comes. The rennet test will 
help us to regulate this, but if the rennet test tells us 
we have a fast working milk, we must cook faster, and 
perhaps higher. When we draw the whey, the curd 
must not be salvy and soft, but when a big double 
handful is pressed together in the hands, and one 
hand removed, it should not remain in a mashed up 
mass, but should fall apart readily. The particles of 
curd should be examined from time to time, to see 
that they are cooking on the inside as well as the out- 
side. 



CHAPTER VII. 

DRAWINGTHE WHEY-DIPPING THE CURD. 

As has been said, when there is an eighth of an 
inch of acid on the curd, the whey should be drawn off. 

Measuring Acid. Strictly speaking, we cannot 
measure acid by the inch, but the acid seems to act 
on the curd in some way, so that when a piece is 
touched to a hot iron and drawn away, it will leave 
fine, silky threads behind, sticking to the iron. With 
normal working milk, when the curd is first cooked 
up, it will not string at all; but when the acid has 
reached a certain strength, it will begin to string, at 
first barely sticking to the iron, and as the acid in- 
creases, the strings will get longer, till they may be 
several inches in length. 

Threads Due to Acid. That the threads are in no 
way due to the rennet, but are dependent on the acid, 
is shown when milk sours naturally. Such a sour milk 
curd will usually string on a hot iron. If acid is in- 
troduced into the milk in sufficient quantity to curdle 
it, the curd will likely string. In fact, strings of any 
desired length can be produced, by adding the right 
quantity of acid to the milk. However, if too much 
acid is added, it will make a soft, mushy curd, which 
will not string. In the natural curdling of milk, where 
the acid develops in sufficient quantity, we get just 
such a soft, mushy curd, that will not string. 

[36] 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 37 

Result of Too Much Acid. Not only is this the re- 
sult in cheese making, when too much acid is devel- 
oped in the whey, but there is also a great loss of fat. 
Experience has taught us, that as a usual thing we can- 
not let the curd take more than one-eighth of an inch of 
acid in the whey without disastrous results. If we were 
to wait but a short time after we have strings an eighth 
of an inch long, we would find perhaps, that they had 
increased to an inch in length, and our curd would be 
ruined. It is therefore necessary, that one should 
work nimbly at this stage of the process. Not only 
should the whey be drawn off from the curd, but the 
curd must also be thoroughly drained, for whey in the 
curd will have the same effect as though the curd 
were still in the whey. Of course the curd must con- 
tain its natural amount of moisture, but there must 
be no pools of free whey in or on the curd. 

In the old system of granular cheese making, the 
curd was stirred over in the bottom of the vat, and 
then a ditch made in the middle for it to drain. In 
this stirring, considerable fat was lost, and the curds 
were not uniform in moisture. The reason of this was, 
that they were stirred drier one day than another. 

Curd Rack. In the system distinctly known as the 
cheddar system, which we follow, the curd is drained 
on racks, which are placed either in the bottom of the 
vat or in a curd sink. The racks are made of hard 
wood, preferably maple. They are constructed of 
strips rounded on the top, three-fourths of an inch 
thick, two inches wide, screwed onto two other pieces 
two inches high, three-fourths of an inch thick, and 



38 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



four feet long. The slats are three-eighths of an inch 
apart, and extend crosswise of the vat, and are long 
enough, so that not more than a quarter of an inch of 
space is left between each end and the sides of the 
vat. The racks are usually in two four-foot sections. 

Racks, How Used, When the whey is drawn down, 
so that there is but very little whey left in the vat to 
interfere with operations, the vat is tipped so that one 
end is five or six inches lower than the other, and the 
curd is shoved down to the lower end till about five 




CURD RACK. 



feet of the upper end is cleared. The first section of 
the rack is then put in, and a linen strainer cloth 
thrown over it. This strainer cloth should be about 
twelve feet long, and wide enough (60 inches) to 
come up over the sides of the vat. The surplus cloth 
is then tucked under the lower end of the rack, and 
the curd piled onto it and broken apart to allow the 
whey to escape. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 39 

It should be stirred over several times, and then left 
to mat evenly about six inches deep. The space, 
formerly occupied by the curd that has been put onto 
the racks, is now clear, and the second section of the 
rack can be placed in the vat. This is put in close to 
the first section, and the cloth that had been tucked 
out of the way, is drawn over it and covered with 
curd, care being taken, as on the first section, to stir 
out the whey. The sides and ends of the strainer 
cloth are then wrapped over the curd, and the vat cov- 
ered with a heavy cloth cover to keep the curd warm. 
The temperature must be maintained, to keep fermen- 
tation going on. 

Cutting: the Curd into Blocks. After ten or fif- 
teen minutes, the curd will have matted together, and 
can be cut into large blocks, which are turned over. 
The best instrument for cutting the curd is a wooden 
butter spade, which will cut the curd but not the cloth. 
The curd can be cut once or twice down the length of 
the vat, and across the vat, into pieces eight inches 
wide. 

Turning the Curd. Begin at the lower end to turn 
the curd, for it will be more convenient to place the 
hands under the curd on the side toward the upper 
end of the vat, and roll it over. In so doing, it is 
not necessary to lift the piece, thereby breaking it. 
Continue turning the other pieces in the same manner, 
till the last piece at the upper end of the vat is reached, 
then, by a pull of the cloth, it is turned over. Cover 
it up and let it stand to mat still closer. By using 



40 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

racks, the whey runs through when the curd is turned 
over. Watch the curd, and if whey should collect be- 
tween the pieces, turn them over and let it run off. 
The curd should be turned over from time to time, 
but much oftener at first, to facilitate the expulsion of 
the whey. After a while the curd will begin to get a 
grain to it, and will tear like the meat on a chicken's 
breast. 

Pin-holey Curds. If we have what is called a 
* 'gassy" or ' 'pin-holey" curd, the gas will begin to 
form in little holes about the size of a pin head. 
Through the flattening of the curd, these holes are 
flattened and the gas escapes. Sometimes these pin 
holes appear before the curd is taken out of the whey, 
and, if they are plentiful enough, the curd will float 
on the surface of the whey, and we have what is called 
a "floater." But this does not occur very often, if we 
draw the whey in time. It used to occur quite often 
with bad milk, when the curd was left in the granular 
form, and more acid was run in the whey. The pin 
holes were not flattened, and consequently appeared 
in the cheese. Such curds are often accompanied by 
a bad flavor. They are probably caused from bad 
ferments, but may be due to bad flavored food. 
Clover and watercress, when eaten by the cows, have 
been known to give a curd with pin holes. 

Some of the taints are much more persistent than 
others. As a usual thing, a taint can not be gotten 
entirely out of the cheese. 

Washing Curds. A curd can be greatly improved 
by washing it. When put onto the racks, and before 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



41 



it has had time to mat, a few pails of water at a tem- 
perature of 105° F. will wash out a great deal of the 
taint. Sometimes taints, due to the feeding of turnips, 
cabbages, and like foods are met with. In such cases, 
potassium nitrate, commonly called salt peter, has 
been used to prevent the flavor showing in the cheese. 
I do not like the idea of using 
such things, as they are injurious 
to health. If foods like turnips 
are fed to cattle, they should be 
fed in small quantities just after 
milking, and the results will not 
show in the milk. 




CURD SCOOP. 




CURD SINK. 



42 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



Use of a Curd Sink. It is much easier to get the 
curd onto the racks and expel the whey, by using a 
curd sink. Nor is as much fat lost in the operation, 
for where the curd mats together in the vat before it 
can be gotten onto the racks, it is necessary to break 
it apart to let the whey out, and the necessary bruis- 
ing forces the fat out of it. 

Proper Form of Curd Sink. The common form 
of curd sink, with an opening along the whole length 
of the bottom, is to be avoided. The sink should be 
a tin lined box with a channel bottom. There should 
be racks in it, and the channel under the racks will 
leave a place for hot water, to keep the curd warm. 
There should be a faucet at the lower end that can be 
opened to let the whey drain off, and then closed to 

keep the water under the curd. 
If the racks are not used, the 
curd will not drain sufficiently; 
and if there is an opening along 
the bottom, there will be a cur- 
rent of air started up around 
the curd which will be cooled. 
Of course this is just what we 
must avoid, because the fer- 
mentation will be checked, if the curd cools down. 

How to fill the Curd Sink. When the curd sink is 
used, the whey should be drawn down in the vat till 
it just barely covers the curd; for while it is covered 
with whey, it will not mat. The curd sink is then 
run to the lower end of the vat, and the curd dipped 
over onto the racks in the curd sink. All the whey 




CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 43 

runs through, and the curd is left dry to mat properly. 
If the curd is tainted, it can be more thoroughly 
washed, as the curd is not matted together, and the 
water will wash all around the particles. As the curd 
is filled into the sink, this can be moved along, and 
the curd filled into it evenly. 

After the curd has been turned several times, the 
maker can begin piling it. He can pile it two, three, 
or five or six layers deep, but he should keep the 
pieces pretty well together, so that the curd will not 
spread too much at first. 

Keep the Curd Warm. The pieces that have been 
on the outside of the pile should be placed on the in- 
side, so that the temperature may be kept even. We 
must not forget the fact, that cheese-making is a pro- 
cess of fermentation, and that heat is a great factor 
in it. 

Piling Curds. Piling the curd has a tendency to 
make a fast-curing, soft or ' 'weak-bodied," cheese. 
If a fast-curing, soft cheese is desired, then the curd 
should be piled, but if a slow-curing, firm-bodied 
cheese is desired, we should pile the curd very little 
or not at all. In many of the best Canadian factories, 
the curd is not piled at all, but is turned over and 
over. A curd, from over ripe milk, should not be piled 
very much, as such a curd is likely to produce a 
"salvy" cheese. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MILLING THE CURD. 

When a Curd is Ready to Mill. In the course of 
an hour and a half from the time the curd has been 
dipped onto the racks, it will have matted down, and 
assumed a meaty texture. It will not tear out in 
chunks, but in strips like the meat on a chicken's breast. 
There will also probably be half an inch or more, 
likely an inch, of fine strings, when tried on a hot 
iron. It is then ready to grind or mill, that is, it is 
put into a curd mill and cut into small pieces. The 
acid should be developing well at this stage of the 
process, but the amount of acid is not so important as 
that the curd shall be meaty in texture. 

Description of Curd Mills. The first curd mills 
were used in England. They consisted of a hopper, 
in the bottom of which was a roller with iron pegs in 
it. Sometimes there were two rollers. On the side 
of the hopper were iron pegs, and when the curd was 
thrown into it, the pegs in the roller would catch it, 
and carry it against the pegs, and tear and squeeze it 
to pieces. 

The old Roe mill is made on this principle. The 
old Elgin mill was also on the same plan, only there 
was less room for the curd to get between the pegs, 
and the curd was badly smashed and jammed. It 
helped to get rid of the fat, and such a mill ought 

[44] 




PEG MILL. 




POHL MILL. 



4 6 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



never to have been used. The curd mills got a bad 
reputation from such members of the family as the 
Elgin mill, and even to-day, it is hard to restore the 
decent members of the family to the confidence of all 
cheese makers. 

Pohl Mill. The next form of peg mill, which I 
think is the best peg mill ever invented, is the Pohl 
mill, which has sharp teeth on two cylinders, revolv- 
ing at different velocities, which pick the curd to 
pieces. The objection to this mill is, that it does not 
leave the curd in the same size pieces. Some of the 
pieces will be quite large, while others are small, and 
when salted, the salt will not be evenly distributed. 
There is a self-salting attachment to the mill, but it is 
useless, as a curd is never ready to salt when milled. 

Whitlow Mill. A knife-mill does not jam the curd 
as much as a peg-mill does. It simply cuts it. One 
of the earliest forms of knife-mills was built after the 




COMMON KNIFE CURD MILL. 

form of peg-mills, as is seen in the Whitlow mill 
of Canada. There are a number of knives on a 
shaft which play between knives in the side of the 
hopper. When the curd is put into the hopper, it 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



47 



is caught between the knives and cut into small 
pieces. 

McPherson Mill. The McPherson mill, invented 
in Eastern Ontario, consists of a wheel with knives 
in it similar to the blade of a plane. A hopper feeds 




M*PHERSON CURD MILL. 

the curd down against the wheel, and as it turns, 
slices of curd are shaved off. The wheel is apt to 
make the curd fly. 

The Harris Mill. The Harris mill has a net- 
work of knives at the bottom of a hopper. A plunger 
works by a lever into this hopper, and when a chunk 
of curd is dropped into this, the plunger forces it 
through the knives, leaving the curd in pieces one-half 
inch square, and as long as the piece of curd dropped 
into the hopper. 

Caswell Mill. The Caswell mill used in Canada, 
is really a Harris mill fitted up for power, but instead 
of cutting the curd into square pieces, they are 
diamond-shaped. In either of these mills, the curd 
should be put into the hopper edgewise, so that the 
strips will be cut in the direction of the grain of the 



4 8 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



curd. If there are any holes in the curd the pieces 
lying across each other will continue to flatten them. 
The pin holes must be flattened, for as long as they 
remain round, they will appear in the cheese. 




HARRIS CURD MILL. 



Advantages and Objections to Knife Mills. The 

other advantage of a knife-mill, besides saving the fat 
in the curd, is that the curd will not mat together on the 
racks, but can easily be torn to pieces by hand. An 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 49 

objection offered to such mills is, that the curd will 
not press together well. It may perhaps be difficult 
at times, but I think the trouble in closing the cheese 
lies somewhere else. It must be remembered that 
knife-mills are used, hardly without exception, in fac- 
tories where the best Canadian cheese is made, and 
this cheese is shipped to England, where the 
bandages are often stripped off from them, and they 
must necessarily be closed. 

If the trouble in closing the cheese be carefully in- 
vestigated I think it will be found to be in the band- 
age used, or the temperature of the curd.* Some 
makers let the curd mat together again, and grind a 
second or third time, but I do not like so much hack- 
ing of the curd. The curd should be piled up to flat- 
ten the pinholes, and then stirred every fifteen min- 
utes to give it air. 

Stirring the Curd. A five-tined fork, with the 
points turned into little loops to prevent catching into 
the cloth, or sticking into the sink, is a very handy 
tool with which to stir the curd. It does the work 
thoroughly, and with much less labor than with the 
hands alone. 

Time to Mill. I like to have the grinding come 
about half way in time, from dipping the curd to salt- 
ing it. It therefore should be an hour and a half 
from grinding to salting, t During all this time the 
temperature should be kept up. (Why?) 

*If the curd is too warm fat will run in between the pieces and pre- 
vent closing. By putting to press at a lower temperature this can 
usually be avoided. 

•fSometimes fat will run freely from a curd as soon as milled. In 
such a case the curd should be held longer before milling, and 
salted'soon after milling, 

4 — C. CM. -. 



50 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

We want the curd to take all the acid it will before 
salting, which is indicated by strings about two inches 
long on the hot iron. 

Effect of Dry Acid. If a fast-curing cheese is 
wanted, there is all the greater reason for giving it 
all the acid it will take. 

If a cheese is salted before the lactic fermentation 
has proceeded far enough, Swiss holes will develop. 

Do not be afraid of getting a sour cheese by giving 
it all the dry acid it will take. If one has got all 
the whey out of the curd, there is no danger from too 
much acid. It is acid in the whey that makes a sour 
cheese. 

How to Expel Was. If the pin-holes are not all 
flattened out by the time we are ready to salt the 
curd, it can be put into the hoops and pressed up for 
fifteen minutes. Then take it out and pull to pieces 
by hand or with the fork. This, however, is not 
necessary except in very stubborn cases. The gas 
can usually be expelled by thorough airing and piling. 






CHAPTER IX. 

SALTING THE CURD. 

Condition of a Curd for Salting. When ready to 
salt, the curd when rubbed on the hot iron, should 
not smell like burnt hair, but like toasted cheese. It 
should not feel harsh, but soft and silky, and when 
squeezed in the hand, a mixture of half fat and half 
whey should run between the fingers. 

If it is clear whey that runs out, the curd is not 
ready to salt. White whey should not run from a 
curd before salting. In that case it has not been fully 
freed from whey, and there is a heavy loss of fat. Of 
course, if the whey is in the curd, it should be gotten 
rid of, but it ought not to be there. When salted, a 
clear brine should run from the curd. 

Few cheese makers realize how important a step in 
the process of cheese making the salting of the curd 
is, and they salt all their curds according to some fixed 
rule, learned from their predecessors, without know- 
ing what the salt does. 

What Salt Is. Salt is known to chemists by the 
name of sodium chloride. It is a chemical combina- 
tion of the metal sodium and chlorine gas, in the pro- 
portion by weight, of twenty-three parts sodium to 
thirty-five and a half parts chlorine. 

Where Salt Conies From. It occurs in beds in the 
earth, and is either mined, or more commonly obtained 
from salt wells, in which the salt is dissolved by the 

[51] 



52 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

water, pumped up to the surface, and evaporated, 
leaving the salt. But salt does not occur pure in these 
beds. 

Impurities in Salt. There are associated with it 
potassium chloride, calcium chloride, sulphates, mag- 
nesia, and lime. The presence of calcium chloride in 
the salt makes it lumpy and damp, for calcium chlo- 
ride has a great attraction for water, and will take it 
from the air. Calcium chloride and magnesium give 
the salt a bitter taste. 

These impurities however, as well as the water con- 
tained in salt, are a very low percentage of the whole, 
and when a salt dealer talks about his salt being so 
much stronger or purer than any other high grade salt, 
it is not so. Do not understand however, that com- 
mon barrel salt is just as good as the best salt for 
cheese making, for it is not. Common barrel salt con- 
tains a great deal of dirt, and salt may take up bad 
odors, which will be imparted to the cheese. 

Fine salt that has probably been ground, and the 
crystals broken, will dissolve faster than a coarser salt, 
in the natural crystalline form. 

Salts can easily be tested as to quality, by dissolving 
them in pure water, in a glass cylinder, and shaking 
up to dissolve. Use more salt than will dissolve. 
The best salt is that which leaves a clear brine with 
no scum or dirt on the top, nor dirt in the bottom of 
the solutions. Cheese is an article of food and we do 
not want any dirt in it, so we should avoid dirty salt. 
It a few drops of a solution of ammonium oxalate is 
poured into the salt solution, any lime that may be in 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 53 

the salt will be thrown down in the form of a white 
precipitate of calcium oxalate. By this means we can 
form an idea of the amount of lime in the salt. I 
doubt if a little lime calcium oxide) is harmful in the 
salt, but if the calcium is in the form of chloride, it 
will attract moisture and make the salt lump. Lumpy 
salt will not be evenly distributed in the cheese. 

What Salt does to Cheese. In the first place, salt 
gives taste to a cheese. A cheese without salt has an 
insipid fresh taste. Salt also takes out the moisture, 
so that fermentation is checked. A cheese without 
salt will cure very fast, in fact fermentation goes on so 
rapidly that gas holes are formed. 

The same thing is seen in brick and swiss cheese, in 
which the fermentation starts in the unsalted state, 
but the salt, which is applied to the outsides, works its 
way into the cheese before it gets bad. It should be 
noted, that such cheese has to be cured in a cellar, 
where there is a constant low temperature. They 
would otherwise spoil. 

Effect of too much Salt. If a cheese is salted too 
heavy, it becomes dry and mealy, and cures very 
slowly. The flavor is also injured. If we have bad 
milk, we should salt higher to improve the flavor, for 
up to a certain point, this is accomplished by heavier 
salting. I believe this to be due to the fact, that as 
the fermentation is checked by more salt, the gases 
formed have a chance to diffuse, and get out of the 
cheese without filling it with holes and the odor of the 
gases. 

We would, therefore, if we wanted to make a fine 



54 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



flavored cheese, salt it pretty heavy, say three pounds 
of salt per one hundred of curd. We must expect 
however, that such a curd will cure slowly. We can- 
not make the best kind of cheese in a day, a week, 
nor a month. If one wants a fast curing cheese, he 
uses more rennet and less salt, but the product will 
not be as good a cheese. It will not be as close, nor 
as fine flavored, for the gases will not have had time to 
escape from the cheese. If one is making a fine, slow 
curing cheese, he need not expect to get as much 
cheese per hundred weight of milk, as if he were mak- 
ing fast curing cheese, for the salt expels the moist- 
ure and leaves less weight. 




Effect of salt in cheese: No. i, no salt; No. 2, upper row, \% 
pounds; lower row, 2 pounds per 100 pounds of curd; No. 3, 3 pounds 
per 100 pounds of curd. 

In a case which we had in the Wisconsin dairy 

school, a curd was divided into three equal parts. * The 

first lot received no salt; the second lot one and a half 

*A further discussion of this by the author will be found in the 
Wis. Experiment Station Eleventh Annual Report. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 5 5 

pounds of salt per cwt. ; and the third lot three 
pounds per cwt. The curds were then pressed separ- 
ately, and the green cheese weighed as follows: 

The cheese with no salt 10 lbs. 

The cheese with one and a half lbs. of salt 9. 75lbs. 

The cheese with three pounds of salt 9. 5olbs. 

As the cheese cured, they kept their relative weights. 
Other experiments have borne out this result. 

Curds not always Salted the same Amount. But 

curds should not always be salted at the same rate, 
from day to day. 

A moist curd needs more salt than a dry one, for 
two reasons: First, the excess of moisture must be ex- 
pelled by the addition of salt; and second, as the ex- 
pulsion of moisture takes salt with it in solution, 
enough must be applied, to leave the proper amount 
in the cheese. 

Salt Should be Evenly Distributed. It is also es- 
sential, that the salt should be evenly distributed 
through the cheese. If there is too much salt in the 
curd that is put into the hoop last, it will crack the 
rind of the cheese. 

Application of Salt. The curd should be spread 
out evenly in the curd sink, and a part of the salt scat- 
tered evenly over it. The curd should then be stirred 
thoroughly, and again spread out, and the remainder 
of the salt applied. It ought to be stirred every ten 
minutes, to keep the salt from settling to the bottom 
of the pile, in a brine. 

Temperature for Salting. Before salting, it should 



56 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



have been cooled to 90° F., for if too warm, the fat 
may be expelled in large quantities with the brine. 
The curd should not be put to press, till the salt has 
been thoroughly dissolved and worked into it. 

Condition of Salted Curd for Pressing. It will have 
a harsh feeling, due to the undissolved salt crystals, and 
the outside of the pieces of curd are hardened, so that 
they will not press together readily; but as the salt 
works into the curd, it will regain its velvety feeling. 
When this condition has been reached, which is usually 
in fifteen to twenty minutes, it is ready for the press. 






CHAPTER X. 

PRESSING THE CHEESE. 

Cord Must Not be too Warm. Before pressing, 
the curd should be cooled to between eighty and 
eighty-five degrees. If put to press warmer, the fat 
runs, and large quantities of it are lost. It also runs 
between the pieces of curd, so that they will not close 
together, and under the bandage, preventing it from 
sticking. Poorly closed cheese has often been blamed 
to the curd mill, when the trouble really lay in the 
temperature at which it was put to press. 

Curd Must Not be too Cold. Of course, when the 
curd is much below 8o c , it will not close together, 
but there is a happy medium. This happy medium 
varies according to the temperature of the press room. 
If the room is cold, the curd will cool down. A 
cheese-maker must have some brains in his head, and 
use them, for he is more than a mere machine to be 
wound up and run down. A proper temperature for 
the press room is about 70-. 

Common Packages of Cheese. There are three 
common packages, into which American cheese is 
pressed, namely, Young Americas, weighing nine or 
ten pounds, Flats and Cheddars, weighing respectively 
thirty and sixty pounds. 

The common diameter of flats or cheddar cheese is 
fourteen and a half inches, and a flat is half the height 
of a cheddar. 

[57] 



58 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



There are two kinds of presses used, the gang and 
the upright. The upright press has the screws in an 
upright position, and but one screw to a cheese. The 
gang press has one horizontal screw, which presses 
any where from one to twenty cheese. The hoops 




UPRIGHT PREES. 

are made a little smaller at the bottom than the top, 
so that each hoop will fit over the next one in front 
of it. 

The Canadians use the upright presses more than 
we do in Wisconsin, thinking the pressure will be 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



59 



kept up better, as there is but one cheese under a 
screw, but they are hard to keep clean and take up a 
great deal of room. 




There are forms of gang presses, * which keep up a 

*D. H. Burrell, Little Falls, N. Y., makes a continuous pressure 
press, and also a pressure block which can be put inte any gang 
press. 



60 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

continuous pressure by springs, or a system of levers, 
which are kept tight by weights. 

In the gang hoop, the bandage is held by an iron 
band, which slips into the top of the hoop. This iron 
band is called the "bandager." 

In pressing the cheese, the maker should aim to 
turn out a perfect cheese. He should be an artist, 
and produce an object of beauty. The ends should 
be square with its height, clean, and the bandage 
turned down evenly at the ends, and closed well on 
the sides. 

Kinds of Bandage Used. There are two kinds of 
bandages used, starched and seamless. The starched 
bandage is made up, from the starched cloth, by the 
factory man. The seamless bandage comes in the 
form of a long tube, from which the required length 
for the cheese is cut. But the starched, bandage will 
not let the whey out properly, and conseqently the 
cheese does not close on the sides. The cheese closes 
much better with the unstarched, seamless bandage. 

Ready-made unstarched bandages of better quality 
than the seamless bandage and about the same cost 
are now in the market. 

How the Bandage is Put Onto the Cheese. When 
the bandage is put into the hoop, the edge should be 
turned in evenly, for about an inch and a half on the 
bottom, and perhaps dampened to hold its place. 

Before putting the bandage in, the bottom cap cloth 
should be put in. It should be round, and as large 
as the bottom of the hoop (fourteen and a half inches), 
and should be soaked in hot water. Square cap cloths 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 6l 

lap over onto the sides of the cheese, and make bad 
looking scars. 

Cheese Must be the Same Size. Care should be 
taken to put the same amount of curd into each hoop, 
so that the cheese will all be the same height. 

The hoops should not be filled so full that the 
cheese comes above the junction between the bandage 
and the hoop, for in such cases, there will be a little 
ridge left at the junction, which will disfigure the 
cheese. 

When the curd has been filled into the hoop, the 
top cap cloth is put on, and the fibrous ring laid 
around the edge, to keep the curd from pushing out, 
and then the follower put in. Usually the fibrous ring^ 
is tacked onto the follower, and while it may fit well, 
it quite often happens that it does not; and the curd 
will push out at the places where the ring does not 
come tight against the hoop. There is another point 
in having the fibrous ring separate from the follower, 
which will be noticed when we come to it later on. 

Tighten the Press Slowly. After the hoops have 
been slipped into place, the screw should be tightened 
slowly, to let the whey out gradually. A small 
stream of brine should be kept flowing. If too great 
pressure is applied at first, the fat will be forced out. 
Curd closes together slowly, as will be seen by squeez- 
ing it in the hand. If it be squeezed suddenly, and 
then the pressure released, it will fall apart, but if 
pressed up slowly in the hand, it will stick together. 
We should not have reached the full pressure for about 
fifteen minutes. 



62 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

In about an hour, the curd will be pressed together, 
and then the bandage should be turned down around 
the top of the cheese. This operation is generally 
called ' 'dressing" the cheese. 

Dressing the Cheese. Set the hoops in an upright 
position, and take out the followers, cap cloths, and 
bandagers. Pull the bandage gently, to be sure there 
are no wrinkles in it, and then trim off evenly all 
around, so that it will lap over onto the end of the 
cheese about an inch and a half. Soak it down into 
position with warm water, and put on the cap, after 
having wrung it out in warm water. Be sure there 
are no wrinkles in the cap, for they will leave bad 
looking marks on the rind of the cheese. 

Then put in the bandages to keep the hoops straight 
in the press, and the fibrous ring and follower, and 
close up the press, putting on full pressure. Young 
Americas, however, will not stand as much pressure, 
for they do not have as much surface as larger cheese, 
to resist it. 

How to get Cheese Dry. The idea, that we make 
a cheese dry by pressing it, is an erroneous one. The 
whey has to be gotten out of the curd, while it is in the 
vat, and if it is not gotten out there, no amount of 
squeezing in the press will expel it, and the cheese 
will get sour. 

If the press is not a continuous pressure one, as is 
likely the case, the maker should tighten the press 
the last thing at night, and the first thing in the morn- 
ing. 

In the morning, the cheese should be taken out of 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 63 

the hoops and examined, to see if they are perfect in 
shape, and all defects remedied. If the bandage does 
not stick, the cheese should be washed with warm 
water, and after being tightened in the press, hot wa- 
ter turned on to warm it up. If the edge of the up- 
per end of the cheese is rough, it should be turned 
end for end in the hoop. In either case, the fibrous 
ring should be left out, so that the edge of the cheese 
will come out of the hoop square. Of course it must 
be watched, to see that the cheese does not push out 
beyond the follower, and its last state be worse than 
the first; but if the pressure is carefully applied, a 
nice square edge can be put onto a cheese, in this 
way. 

Do not Pound the Hoops. The cheese should slip 
out of the hoop with very little pounding. Pounding 
loosens the rivets, and thereby gets the hoops into 
bad repair, as well as loosens the bandage on the 
cheese, and sometimes breaks the cheese. 

Where a knife is used to loosen the cheese, the 
bandage is also often loosened. If the cheese does 
not slip out easily, grease the hoops. The hoops 
should of course be kept clean, and if it is neccesary 
to grease them, clean grease can be applied. 

Cheese should never be taken out on the floor, but 
on a press board. We must remember that cheese is 
an article of human food. Most people like to have 
clean food to eat, and we should aim to be just as clean 
in making the cheese, as though the consumers were 
watching all the time. 

Wipe the cheese off with a clean cloth, and then put 



64 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

them on the shelves, marking the date neatly. Cheese 
with great big marks scrawled over them do not look 
attractive. 

Greasing the Cheese. As soon as the rind has 
dried off, it should be greased with regular cheese 
grease. The practice of skimming the whey, after it 
has fermented and got full of dirt, is nothing less than 
a dirty trick. Good wholesome grease, prepared for 
the purpose, can be bought of regular dealers in dairy 
supplies, and nothing else should be used. 

Cracks in Cheese. If the cheese is left exposed to 
the air too long, before being greased, it will crack. 
Another cause of the rind cracking is too much acid 
in the whey. A high acid cheese will, as a rule, crack. 
A draft of air blowing over the cheese will also cause 
it to crack. This of course is caused by the air ab- 
sorbing moisture from the rind. I think, that while 
the question of moisture in the curing of American 
cheese has gone almost unconsidered, we must pay 
more attention to it in the future. 

Cheese in Cold Storage. Cheese held in cold stor- 
age are very likely to mould, which will work into the 
cracks, and for this reason buyers do not want cracked 
cheese. The rinds of high acid cheese, held in cold 
storage, will also begin to rot at the middle. 

Sometimes the maker leaves the caps, or press cloths 
as they are sometimes called, on, until a few days be- 
fore shipping, and then pulls them off and greases the 
rinds. 

Sometimes salt sacks made out of heavy ducking 
are used for caps. This leaves a hard, but very rough 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 65 

rind, and if the cheese is held in cold storage, and 
mould grows on it, it is almost impossible to get the 
mould off, and buyers are strongly opposed to using 
salt sacks for this purpose. 

Cleaning Mouldy Cheese. Cheese that gets mouldy 
in cold storage, is put into a sink of hot water to which 
a little ammonia has been added, and scrubbed with a 
brush. It is put on a shelf to drain and dry, and after- 
ward boxed again. 

Cheese Cloth Circles. Sometimes a thin "cap" of 
cheese cloth, or a "cheese cloth circle," is put onto 
the end of the cheese. 

Press Cloths, The first one is put on inside the 
"heavy cap" or "press cloth," before the curd is put 
into the hoop, and the other one is put in when the 
cheese is "dressed." The cheese cloth circle does not 
go on under the bandage, where it is turned down on 
the end, but over it. In using the circles, there is no 
need of cheese grease till the cheese are shipped. The 
circle is then pulled off and the rind greased. 

The circle makes the cheese much cleaner, and buy- 
ers generally prefer them, and will pay more money 
for the cheese, usually an eighth of a cent a pound 
more. The cost is about one-sixteenth of a cent a 
pound on flats. Sometimes by special agreement 
buyers want the circles left on the cheese. 

They should be but twelve or thirteen inches in di- 
ameter, as they sometimes do not stick under the edge 
where they lap over the bandage. 

Keep a Daily Record. When the cheese is ready 

5 — C. C. M. 



66 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 




to ship, it quite often happens that a maker finds 

something peculiar 
about a cheese, which 
he wishes to avoid or 
reproduce in the future, 
but he does not remem- 
ber the circumstances 
connected with the 
making of that particular cheese. In the best Cana- 
dian factories, a daily record is kept, in a book for 
the purpose, of how the milk and curd act. This 
gives them a history of each cheese, and by its aid, 
they have often been able to remedy defects, and re- 
produce the better points. 

Such a record is kept of all cheese made at the Wis- 
consin Dairy School, only for greater convenience in 
the school the records are made by filling out printed 
blanks. 

The following is a copy of one of the blanks: — 



Date 

Vat used (Number of vat), 

Condition of milk, 

Per cent, of fat in milk, 

Pounds of milk in vat, 

Rennet test for ripeness, 

Temperature set, 

Time set, 

Amount of rennet used, 

Rate of rennet per 1,000 lbs of milk, 

Time cut, 



189 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 67 

Minutes in curdling, 

Time steam was turned on, 

Time required in raising to degrees, 

Hot iron test when dipped, 
Time dipped, 

Time from cutting to dipping, 
Per cent, of fat in whey, 
Time ground, 

Hot iron test when ground, 
Time salted, 
Amount of salt on curd, 
Rate of salt per 1,000 fibs of milk, 
Time put to press, 
Kind and number of cheese made, 
Time dressed, 
Time pressed, 
Weight of green cheese, 

Average weight of milk per pound of cheese, 
Highest and lowest temperature of curing room for- 
last twenty-four hours, 

Remarks: — 



Under the head of remarks, any important thing 
not included under the other heads may be noted, 
such as a gassy curd, or washing out the bad flavor, or 
any way of treatment differing from the ordinary 
way. 

J. H. Monrad has prepared a blank book for such records. It can be ordered 
for one dollar from Chr. Hansen's I,aborator\% Little Falls, N. Y. Mr. Monrad 
has also published "A, B, C of Cheese Making," price 50 cents, and "Dairy 
Messenger," a complete treatise on butter making. Price $1.25. Address J. H. 
Mourad, Winnetka, 111. 



CHAPTER XL 

CURING OF THE CHEESE. 

Proper Temperature. The curing of cheese is a 
process of fermentation, whereby the insoluble curd is 
converted into soluble peptones. Cheese is cured best 
at a temperature of 6o° F. , for, as has been stated 
before, at this temperature the gases have a chance to 
diffuse and pass from the cheese, without injuring its 
texture, and the fat does not run out. 

The curing room must, therefore, be so constructed 
that the temperature may be kept constant at 6o°. 
Cheese also needs plenty of fresh air, to make it cure 
properly and produce a good flavor. If a batch of 
cheese is divided into two lots, and one lot boxed up, 
while the other is placed on the shelves, it will be 
found that the lot in the boxes will cure slower, and 
be inferior in flavor to the lot on the shelves. 

Oxygen Needed. Dr. Babcock, in some work on the 
curing of cheese (published in First Annual Report of 
Cornell University Experiment Station), illustrated 
this still more fully, by curing cheese under bell-jars. 

One cheese was fed pure oxygen, while the other 
was fed carbon dioxide (carbonic acid gas). The one 
receiving oxygen cured very rapidly and was fine 
flavored, while the one receiving carbon dioxide did 
not cure; and we thus see that fresh air is essential for 
the proper curing. 

[68] 






CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 69 

Curing Shelves, how Made. The cheese should be 
cured on shelves made of good clear pine, an inch 
and a half thick by sixteen inches wide, supported 
every four feet. The point in having the lumber clear 
is that sap and pitch will be in the knots and color 
the rinds. The boards should be wider than the 
cheese, for if the cheese projects over the edge, a mark 
will be left on the face of the cheese. The board 
ought to be heavy, and the supports close together in 
order to prevent sagging, which might make the cheese 
especially cheddars, crooked. The cheese should be 
turned every day, and the shelves wiped with a clean 
cloth. Pains should be taken not to soil the cheese 
nor break the corners in turning them. 

Arrangement of Cheese. The older cheese should 
be kept on the lower shelves, and the younger ones on 
the upper shelves, because of the difference in tem- 
perature between the upper and lower portions of the 
room. The upper shelves being warmer, the younger 
will cure faster, and the month's make of cheese will 
be evener than if this rule were not followed. 

Cheese ought to be kept till they are a month old 
before shipping. There is so much indigestible green 
cheese put on the market, that people get disgusted 
with it. If they could always get cheese such as they 
like, they would buy more, and if more cheese was 
bought, the price would be higher, and the farmer 
would receive a good rate of interest for waiting for 
his money. 

Moisture in the Curing Room. A matter that has 
not received its proper attention with American or 



JO CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

cheddar cheese is the humidity of the air in the curing- 
room. There are two instruments for measuring the 
humidity — the hygroscope and psychrometer. 




HYGROMETER OR HYGROSCOPE. 

The Hygroscope. The hygroscope is an instru- 
ment consisting of a coil of material very sensitive to 
moisture. As it takes up or gives off water to the 
atmosphere the coil moves a hand around a dial which 
shows the per cent, of saturation. 

The Psychrometer. The psychrometer consists of 
two accurate thermometers. On the bulb of one is 
a wick which dips in acup of distilled water. When 
the air is saturated it has all the water it will hold. 
If the air is not saturated water will evaporate from 
the wick and the dryer the air the greater the evapo- 
ration. As the water passes from around the bulb into 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



71 



the air its lowers the 
temperature. The 
United States Weather 
Bureau has prepared a 
table of readings with 
the corresponding hu- 
midity. The follow- 
ing is such a table for 
use in a curing room. 
The thermometer 
should be fanned brisk- 
ly with a good fan for 
three minutes and then 
the reading taken 
quickly. We first find 
the dry bulb reading 
on the chart and then 
find the wet bulb read- 
ing in the next column, 
and in the third column 
opposite the dry bulb 
reading is the relative humidity, or per cent, of 
saturation, by which we mean the per cent, of wa- 
ter the air is capable of holding at that temperature. 
The psychrometer is not as handy as the hygrometer 
but is considered to be more reliable. 




PSYCHROMETER. 



72 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



Table Showing the Relative Humidity in the Air of 
Curing Rooms. (King.) 



Directions. — Notice that the table is in three column sections. 
Find air temperature in first column, then find wet bulb temperature 
in second column, same division. In third column opposite this is 
relative humidity. 

Example. — Air temperature is 50°, in first column; wet bulb is 44°, 
in second column, same division. Opposite 44 is 61, which is the 
per cent, of saturation, or the relative humidity of the air. 



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CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



73 



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74 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



Humidity in the Air of Curing Rooms. — Continued. 



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CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



75 



Humidity in the Air of Curing Rooms. — GoJitinned. 



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Condition of the Curing Room Air. The air 

should have as much moisture in it as it will hold 
without moulding the cheese. Cheese will stand a 
good deal if the air is kept moving, perhaps as high 
as ninety per cent. If kept between sixty and 
seventy per cent, it is very fair, but the instruments 
show that it often gets down to twenty or thirty per 
cent., and the cheese dry out rapidly and crack. 

Supplying Moisture. Moisture can be supplied by 
sprinkling the floor, or better still, by hanging up wet 
sheets that are constantly supplied with water. 

To supply a curing room of five thousand cubic 
feet capacity at least three cloths thirty inches wide 
by twelve feet long are needed. 



7 6 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



They can be supplied with water from large trays 
into which numerous wicks from the top of the cloth 
run. The wicks should be three inches wide and six 
inches apart. The sheet should be made of heavy 
factory cotton cloth. The trays should be twelve 
inches wide, three inches deep and the length of the 
cloth or twelve feet; or for convenience, there might 

* u/icks 






Wet sheet 




be two trays six feet long. There should be a tray 
at the bottom of the cloth to catch the drip. This 
tray should be six inches wide and six deep. If there 
is plenty of running water a pipe with fine holes 
drilled on the under side might be arranged to hang 
the cloths on and water run through the pipe would 
keep the cloths saturated. A gutter at the bottom 
would carry off the surplus water. 

After a while the cloths will get stiff from sediment 
from the water. They should then be boiled in water 
to which a little hydrochloric acid has been added. 
Do not use enough acid to injure the cloth. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SHIPPING THE CHEESE. 

Cheese, How Boxed. Young Americas are shipped 
four, cheddars one, and flats generally two, in a box. 

Where flats are shipped two in a box, they are 
placed one on top of the other, and are in that case 
termed "twins." When shipped one in a box, they 
are called "singles." 

Scale Boards. That the rinds of the cheese may be 
well protected, "scale boards," or very thin basswood 
or whitewood boards, are placed in the box. Two or 
three are placed on each end of the box, and two or 
three between twins. This number is more than is 
generally used, but cheese in this way keep better 
when placed in cold storage. If flats are put together 
without scale boards, and left for any great length of 
time, they will stick together so tight that they can 
with difficulty be pulled apart. The rinds sweat and 
are easily broken. They therefore need plenty of 
scale boards. The boxes should be trimmed to one- 
eighth of an inch less than the height of the cheese, so 
that it will hold its place and arrive in market in 
good condition. They should not be more than a 
quarter of an inch larger in diameter than the cheese; 
if there is too much room in the box, the cheese will 
be likely to roll around and break the box. On the 
other haod, the box should not be so tight, that the 
cheese will stick in it. 

[77] 



78 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

Boxes that are split or poorly nailed should be 
thrown aside, for they will be sure to arrive in the 
market in a dilapidated condition. Cheese makers do 
not realize, that boxes that may be in fair condition, 
may be entirely useless at the other end of the jour- 
ney. 

How Cheese are Weighed. In weighing cheese 
nothing but full pounds are counted. For instance, if 
the weight is 6o| pounds, it is counted but 60, or if 
the beam barely rises at 61 pounds, it is counted but 
60, for in course of transportation, it would likely lose 
weight, and be cut down, when it is in the hands of 
the buyer. In the large warehouses, where hundreds 
of boxes arrive in a single day, they can not stop to 
weigh every box, but weigh a few boxes, and if they 
fall short, the whole lot is docked accordingly. Such 
weighings are referred to an official weighmaster. 

Marking of Weights. The weight should be sten- 
ciled, or plainly marked on the box (not the cover) 
next to the seam, where it can readily be found. A 
lead pencil hardly makes a sufficiently plain mark on 
a cheese box. The brand of the firm, to whom the 
cheese is shipped, should be stenciled on the side of 
the box. 

Buyer's Stencil. The buyer generally furnishes a 
stencil for this purpose. Each stencil, so issued to 
a shipper, has a distinguishing number on it, which is 
recorded in the buyer's office, and by referring to the 
number they can tell who shipped the cheese. This 
is especially necessary, where several factories make 
up a car load of cheese for a firm. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 79 

If a cheese-maker has any cheese that is not first- 
class, he should put a distinguishing mark on such 
and notify the buyer to that effect, and the buyer will 
usually deal fairly with him, for he understands that 
the maker is not trying to take advantage of him. 

How to Sell Cheese. Cheese is sold mostly on the 
dairy boards of trade. The buyer, after he bargains 
for the cheese, should be required to inspect the 
cheese at the factory and accept or reject it. He 
should then give a draft on a local bank for the amount. 
The bank then draws on the firm for the amount, at 
the place of business of the firm and the cheese be- 
longs to the bank till the draft is honored. This is a 
strictly cash basis, and is fair to both parties. When 
the cheese is hauled to the depot, the boxes should 
be covered with blankets, to protect it from the dust 
and the hot rays of the sun. 

Branding Law. All parts of the old branding law 
not conflicting with the law of 1895 are m force, but 
it amounts to nothing as the branding is optional with 
the maker. 

Laws of Wisconsin, 1895, relating to the Adulter- 
ation of Cheese and the Coloring of Oleomargarine. 
No. 143 S.] [Published March 14, 1S95. 

CHAPTER 30. 
AN ACT for the protection of the public health, and to prevent adul- 
teration, deception or fraud in the manufacture and sale of dairy 
products. 
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and as- 
sembly, do enact as follows: 
Section i. No person, by himself or by his agents or servants, shall 
manufacture or shall buy, sell, offer, ship, consign, expose or have in 



80 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

his possession for sale any cheese manufactured from or by the use of 
skimmed milk to which there has been added any fat which is foreign 
to such milk. 

Section 2. No person, by himself or by his agents or servants, shall 
manufacture or shall buy, sell, offer, ship, consign, expose or have in 
his possession for sale, within this state, any skimmed milk cheese, or 
cheese manufactured from milk from which any of the fat originally 
contained therein has been removed, except such cheese is ten inches 
in diameter and nine inches in height. 

Section 3. No person, by himself or by his agents or servants, shall 
render or manufacture, sell, ship, consign, offer for sale, expose for 
sale, or have in his possession with intent to sell, any article, product 
or compound made wholly or partly out of any fat, oil or oleaginous 
substance or compound thereof, not produced from unadulterated 
milk or cream from the same, and without the admixture or addition 
of any fat foreign to said milk or cream, which shall be in imitation 
of yellow butter produced from pure unadulterated milk or cream of 
the same, with or without coloring matter; provided, that nothing in 
this act shall be construed to prohibit the manufacture or sale of oleo- 
margarine in a separate and distinct form and in such manner as will 
advise the consumer of its real character free from coloration or in- 
gredient that causes it to look like butter. 

Section 4. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or offer for 
sale to any person who asks, sends or inquires for butter, any oleo- 
margarine, butterine or any substance made in imitation of or sem- 
blance of pure butter not made entirely from the milk of cows, with 
or without coloring matter. 

Section 5. It shall be unlawful for any person to expose for sale 
oleomargarine, butterine, or any similar substance not marked and 
distinguished on the outside of each tub. package or parcel thereof by 
a placard with the word "oleomargarine," and not having also upon 
every open tub, package or parcel thereof a placard with the word 
"oleomargarine." such placard in each case to be printed in plain, 
uncondensed gothic letters not less than one inch long, and such plac- 
ard shall not contain any other words thereon. 

Section 6. It shall be the duty of every person who sells oleomar- 
garine, butterine, or any similar substance, from any dwelling, store, 
office or public mart, to have conspicuously posted thereon the plac- 
ard or sign, in letters not less than four inches in %ngth, "oleomar- 
garine sold here," or "butterine sold here." Such placard shall be 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 8 1 

approved by the dairy and food commissioner of the state of Wiscon- 
sin. 

Section 7. It shall be unlawful for any person to peddle, sell or de- 
liver from any cart, wagon or other vehicle, upon the public streets or 
ways, oleomargarine, butterine, or any similar substance, not having 
on the outside of both sides of said cart, wagon or other vehicle the 
placard in uncondensed gothic letters, not less than three inches in 
length, "licensed to sell oleomargarine." 

Section 8. It shall be unlawful for any person to furnish, or cause 
to be furnished in any hotel, boarding house, restaurant, or at any 
lunch counter, oleomargarine, butterine, or any similar substance to 
any guest or patron of said hotel, boarding house, restaurant or lunch 
counter, without first notifying such guest or patron that the sub- 
stance so furnished is not butter. 

Section 9. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of 
this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof 
shall be punished for the first offense by a fine of not less than fifty 
dollars nor more than five hundred dollars; and upon conviction of 
any subsequent offense, shall be punished by a fine of not less than 
one hundred dollars or more than five hundred dollars, or by impris- 
onment in the county jail of not less than ten days nor more than 
sixty days, or by both such fine and -imprisonment, at the discretion 
of the court. 

Section 10. It shall be the duty of the district attorney in any 
county of the state, when called upon by the dairy and food commis- 
sioner of this state, or any of his assistants, to render any legal assist- 
ance in his power to execute, and to prosecute the cases arising under 
the provisions of this act; and the dairy and food commissioner shall 
have power to appoint, with the approval of the governor, special 
counsel to prosecute or to assist in the prosecution of any case arising 
under the provisions of this act. 

Section II. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent or conflicting 
with this act are hereby repealed. 

Section 12. This act shall take effect and be in force from and 
after its passage and publication. 

Approved March 12, 1895. 
6 — c. c. M. 




CHEESE i RYER. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

JUDGING CHEESE. 

Ideal Cheese. One trouble that 
cheese makers meet with is, that 
they do not have the proper idea of 
a perfect cheese in their minds. 
This arises largely from the circum- 
stances under which they are placed. 
The cheese are shipped out of the 
factory as soon as the buyer will 
take them, the youngest being but 
a week or ten days old. The cheese 
may have defects, but the maker 
does not get a chance to see how 
it will turn out. 

Cheese exhibited at the Wiscon- 
sin Dairymen's Conventions is scored 
according to the following scale: 

Flavor 50 

Texture 30 

Salt 10 

Color 10 

Total 100 

To try a cheese a plug is pulled 
from it by means of a cheese trier. 
The trier should be thin, round, and 
a little tapering, so that it will pull 
a round smooth plug. A plug 

[82] 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 83 

should always be taken from the top of the cheese. 
Never plug it through the bandage. 

Flavor. Flavor is the most important item in the 
quality of a cheese. No matter how good the other 
points may be, if the flavor is bad, the cheese will be 
condemned. It would be a difficult matter to describe 
accurately just what the flavor should be like, for there 
are different flavors in cheese, which may be equally 
good. This comes about from the different ferments 
in the cheese which we cannot as yet entirely control. 
In another five years, bacteriological research will 
probably overcome this difficulty for us. 

The old saying that "the proof of the pudding is in 
the eating of it," is true of cheese. If it tastes good 
and we want more of it, it is just the flavor we should 
have. It should not be sharp so that it will bite the 
tongue, but of a mild lasting taste. A great many 
cheese, in which the flavor cannot be termed bad, are 
still on the negative side; they do not have that fine 
lasting aroma, although we can eat them quite agree- 
ably, but do not feel that it is a matter of very great 
importance, whether we can have more of the same 
or not. 

Where experts are judging cheese, they seldom taste 
of any. They get the flavor simply by the smell, for 
if they tasted of every plug they would soon be con- 
fused as to flavor. 

If a cheese is cold, it should first be warmed up in 
the fingers, before looking for the flavor. 

Texture. While flavor stands first in importance, 
the texture of a cheese comes next. The plug should 



84 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

be smooth, not fuzzy. If the cheese is not fully cured 
the plug should bend a little before breaking. When 
held between the eye and the light it should be slightly 
translucent. If the light does not come through it, 
it is a sign that the texture has been injured in the 
manufacture, probably by too high acid. When a 
piece is broken from the plug, it should not crumble 
off, but should show a surface such as flint does when 
broken, and is therefore termed a ' 'flinty break. " When 
pressed between the fingers it should not stick to them 
but should mould like wax. Cheese that is tough and 
will not come down readily between the fingers, is 
said to be ' 'corky, " and is probably due to over cook- 
ing or insufficient quantity of rennet to cure it prop- 
erly. Cheese should not be mealy, as is the case with 
high acid or too highly salted cheese. 

A cheese with good texture should not have any 
round, smooth or ragged holes in it; but should be as 
solid as a board. 

Cheese with the round holes, or one that is soft and 
pasty, will go off flavor on further keeping. 

Salt. As was said under the subject of salting the 
curd, salt gives flavor to a cheese. In fact, the whole 
subject of flavor is affected by the salt. Cheese that 
are a little soft and a little inferior in flavor could have 
been entirely remedied by using a little more salt. It 
has also been stated that salt may injure both the text- 
ure and flavor by using too much. The influence of 
salt is, therefore, partly considered under texture and 
flavor. 

Color. Like salt, the color of a cheese really is 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 85 

another way of judging its texture and flavor. A 
cheese without any coloring matter added to it is 
improperly termed ' 'white. " An uncolored cheese 
should never be white, but of a light amber color. It 
it is a dead white, it is so because the acid has cut the 
color out of it. Of course in a colored cheese, these 
things would be more easily seen. 

The color should be even from one end of the plug 
to the other. A high acid cheese will give a distinct 
ordor to the trier, the same as when acid attacks steel. 

In judging cheese unless some particular market is 
in view, the shade of color cannot be taken into con- 
sideration. New Orleans requires a very high color, 
St. Louis less, and Chicago still less, while Boston in 
this country, and Bristol in England, want no artificial 
coloring. The tendency toward making uncolored 
show cheese seems to be increasing. 

Gross Appearance. A good judge can usually tell 
the quality of a cheese from the outside appearance. 
It should be square, and the rind without cracks, for 
cracks indicate high acid. When the fingers are run 
over the surface, it should be springy, that is, it should 
give readily under the pressure and regain its position. 
If the finger sinks into a place which does not spring 
back, it indicates a hole or soft place in the cheese. 
The rind should not have any white spots on it, as 
these indicate whey. Sometimes the white spots will 
disappear in time, but it is a weak point in the quality 
of the cheese. When the plug has been replaced in 
the cheese, the place should be greased over, to keep 
the cheese from drying out, and skippers from getting 
into the same. 



86 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

Wisconsin Factory Cheese Makers 5 Scale. The 

scale adopted by the Wisconsin Factory Cheese Mak- 
ers' Association at Fond du Lac, 1895, is an improve- 
ment over the old one. It is as follows: 

Flavor 45 

Texture 30 

Color 10 

Make up and general appearance 15 

Total 100 

In this the salt is judged in flavor and texture where 
it belongs, while the very important item of the neat 
way in which the cheese is put up gets proper consid- 
eration. Under the old scale a dirty, poorly bandaged, 
crooked cheese, might get as high a score as a neat 
square one. 

The English scale of points: 

Flavor 35 

Quality 25 

Texture 15 

Color 15 

Make 10 

Total 100 

In the above English scale quality, that considers that 
the cheese should be mellow, rich, melting on the tongue, 
applies to an old, well cured cheese. The cheese that 
goes onto the market in this country would not do that. 
Public Needs Educating. Our people do not know 
what good cheese is, because the great majority of 
them never get any fully cured. If they could get 
well cured cheese they would soon get accustomed to 
it and would eat six times as much and none of the 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 8y 

new green cheese. Of course if we were to suddenly 
put a lot of old cheese onto the market they would 
not know how to take it, but we should give them a 
little and they will get used to it and want more. The 
public needs educating as to what good cheese is. 



PART II. 

Hints on the Construction and Operation 
of Cheese Factories. 



CHAPTER I. 

CONSTRUCTION OF FACTORIES. 

One Difficulty in Making Good Cheese. A large 
part of the difficulty experienced in the making of 
good cheese, results from the condition of the fac- 
tories. In order that we may overcome these diffi- 
culties, let us look at the factories and see where they 
are wrong in their construction, and then we will be 
in a position to suggest a remedy. 

Too Many Small Factories. In the first place, 
there are too many small factories in which little milk 
is received, and in which too low a price for making 
is charged, and therefore the owners cannot afford to 
build properly equipped factories. In the older cheese 
manufacturing districts the tendency has been to 
build a little shanty on every cross-road; people are 
beginning to see the folly of this, however, and I 
believe the tide is turning toward larger and better 
equipped factories. 

Poor Buildings. A great many of the buildings 
are little more than one thickness of boards. The 
vat room is small, and in hot weather the temperature 
of the curing room cannot be held down to the proper 

[88] 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 89 

point, while in cold weather, both the vat and curing 
rooms get down nearly to the freezing point; in fact 
the cheese may freeze in the hoops. 

Poor Foundations. The floors are light and poorly 
supported. Whey is run onto the floor, and leaking 
through, forms a bad mud hole under the factory on 
account of imperfect drainage. 

Whey Tank. The whey tank is set down in the 
ground where it cannot be cleaned out, and it is al- 
lowed to rot week after week, and contaminate the 
milk cans in which the whey is returned to the farms. 
It has even happened that horses have been scared, 
and run away on account of the smell around a 
factory! 

No Hot Water. In many factories there is no 
steam, but the milk is worked up in self-heating vats, 
and there is never water hot enough to scald out 
utensils, or even melt the grease off from them. Nor 
is there a sink for washing tools, and clean wash rags 
and towels are often lacking. 

Any one who knows about our factories would, I 
think, say, that probably one-half of them, would an- 
swer to this description. A great many persons do 
not like to admit that it is so, but we should never 
turn away from the truth, even if it does look dark, 
for unless we know the true condition, we cannot 
have a proper basis for improvement. 

It is for this purpose that we have drawn this pic- 
ture, that we may know how to remedy our mistakes. 
We will therefore consider how a factory may be prop- 
erly built and equipped. 












. 










































































s 

c 
- i 




92 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



We will equip the factory for ten thousand pounds 
of milk per day, which I think is small enough. 

Ontario Cheese Factories. One secret of Western 
Ontario's success is in the fact that her factories are 
large, well built, and properly equipped. 

On pages 90 and 91 we give the plans for a factory. 

Good Foundations. In the first place, we should get 
good solid foundations, either of stone piers, or gas 
pipe, which allows the ground to heave and settle, 
without raising or lowering the building. The sup- 
ports should be close enough together to hold the 
sills in place. 

Dimensions. Our plans call for a making room 
20 x 30 feet, with an office ten feet square taken out 
of one corner of it, and a boiler room 10 x 16 feet at- 
tached, and a curing house 20 x 40 feet, two stories 
high. 

Store Room. The upper story should never be 
used for curing cheese, but for storing cheese boxes 
and other supplies. 

Curing Room. Some Canadian factories have the 
'curing house separate from the rest of the factory, but 
we can build them together and save the lumber for a 
second wall, which would be necessary if they were 
separated. 

Sills. We should have 8x12 inch sills around the 
outside of both parts of the building. There should 
be two 6x8 inch stringers, running across the make- 
room, and one of the same dimensions running through 
the middle of the long way of the curing-room. Ten 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 93 

foot joists can be put between the sills and stringers. 
The dimensions of these joists should be 2 x 10 inches, 
and they can be placed eighteen inches apart. 

Curing-Room Floor. The joists under the cur- 
ing room should have rough boards nailed close to- 
gether on the under side, and a five inch layer of tan 
bark put in between them. There will then be a five- 
inch space left above the tan-bark, over which a tight, 
heavy floor, is to be laid. This maybe made, by first 
laying rough boards, and covering with paper, and 
then laying the regular flooring. The tan-bark, air 
space, and tight floor, are to protect from outside tem- 
perature. 

Yat-Room Floor. The making room should have 
a heavy two-inch floor, preferably of maple. It must 
slope at a scale of one inch in five feet, toward a ditch 
at the lower end of the vats or twenty feet from the 
front end of the room. 

Curing-Room Walls. Paper can be put on the 
studding under the siding, and the walls lathed and 
plastered. The studding is of 2x4, such as is gener- 
ally used, and if tan-bark can be easily obtained, it 
can be filled in between the studding. Tan-bark is 
better than saw-dust for filling in such places, as mice 
are not inclined to work in it as much. It is hardly 
necessary to say, that the top of the room should either 
be ceiled or plastered. 

The curing room must practically be a large box, 
with walls so constructed, that the temperature inside 
will be affected as little as possible by the tempera- 



94 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

ture outside; some means of introducing cool, fresh 
air into the curing room is highly desirable. 

The walls and ceilings will therefore have to be of 
several thicknesses, with air spaces between, like the 
floor which we have already described. 

Doors and Windows. We must not forget, after 
we have built such walls, to have the windows fit tight 
and have shutters on the outside. The doors must 
be heavy, with air spaces in them, and close tight with 
a lever latch like a refrigerator door. 

To construct our walls, we may put up our 2x4 
studding two feet apart, which is to be lathed and 
plastered inside. On the outside, rough boards and 
paper may be put, and then another row of studding, 
and paper nailed on with boards on the outside of these. 
In the spaces in the outer row of studding, tan bark 
may be filled in. 

Joists. The joists in the ceiling should be 2 x 6, 
ten feet long, eighteen inches apart, supported by 4 x 
6 running crosswise of the room. If the room is 
ceiled overhead, tan-bark three inches deep can be 
filled in between the joists, and then a layer of paper 
put down before the floor is laid. If the room is 
lathed and plastered, boards must be put in to hold 
the tan-bark. The second story, which is used only as 
a store room, need not have double walls. A tight 
fitting trap door should be made between the store 
room above and the curing room below, through which 
to get the cheese boxes down. 

Stone Cellar. A better wall for the curing room in 
first story may be made of stone, and built into the side 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 95 

of a hill, for still greater protection from outside tem- 
peratures, as is the case with cellars for curing of brick 
and Swiss cheese. The stone and earth help to keep 
down the temperature of the air in the room. 

Sub-Earth Ducts. But if a sub-earth duct be used, 
the first mentioned form of wall will be sufficient. A 
sub-earth duct is, as its name implies, an underground 
air duct. At about twelve feet below the surface, the 
ground maintains a constant temperature, of some- 
thing like 50 C F., and if we have a duct long enough, 
the air drawn through it will be cooled to near the 
temperature of the ground. Now if we have such a 
duct, say twenty inches in diameter and six hundred 
feet long, we can ventilate the room with cool fresh 
air. Without this duct, we would have to ventilate 
the room by opening the windows in the cool part of 
the day, and keeping them tightly closed when the 
air outside was too warm. 

In order to start a current of air through an air duct, 
we must first build a fire in the chimney, and start a 
draft of warm air up the chimney. This will soon 
rarefy the air in the room, so that the air in the duct 
will start to fill up the space. 

In Prince Edwards Island the Canadian government 
is putting up cheese factories for the people. The 
curing rooms are ventilated by sub-earth ducts. These 
ducts are made of planks nailed together and are three 
to five feet in the ground and three hundred feet or 
more long. While these ducts are not perfect they 
are cheap in construction and help greatly in keeping 
the temperature of the curing room down. Their cli- 



9 6 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



mate is not quite as warm as in Wisconsin, hence three 
to five feet will do with them. A perfect duct will 
hold the temperature of a room at about 50°F. 

Regulating the Air Supply. We can regulate the 
temperature by having a register over the duct, and 
admit the air as fast as we want it. 

Tube, how Built. The tube, of course, might fill up 
by the water in the ground running into it, if the 
ground at both ends was higher than the other part, 
or it might run into the factory if that end were lower, 
but we can obviate all this difficulty by making it slope 
the other way. 






■A 



*-«lrf 



: i 
< i 



!i ffl ffl 





Curing Cellars. In some places cellars made for 
curing brick cheese have been used with splendid re- 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 97 

suits with cheddar cheese. Such a cellar is built 
into the side of a hill, is stoned up on the sides and 
rises above the ground just far enough for small win- 
dows around the top. One trouble with these cellars 
is that they are sometimes so damp that cheese will 
mould rapidly. 

Cellar, How Ventilated. This can be obviated by 
ventilation. At each end of the room is an eight- 
inch pipe running up through the roof. One of these 
has a cone above it to prevent the rain coming in 
through it. On the top of the other is a hood with 
a tail that keeps the hood always facing toward the 
wind, and the wind striking into the hood carries a 
current of air down into the room, while another cur- 
rent of air goes out of the other pipe. Dampers 
similar to those put into stove pipes can be arranged 
in these pipes to regulate the flow of air. If the air 
should get too dry, moisture could be supplied by 
means of wet sheets. I have seen such curing cellars 
where the inside temperature did not go above sixty- 
five degrees while that outside was eighty-five to 
ninety. We would have to change the plans of the 
factory here given for such a curing cellar. 

Boiler Room. The boiler room should have a ce- 
ment floor laid on the ground, and it should be lined 
with corrugated sheet iron, to insure against fire. 

Building should be Raised. The rest of the build- 
ing should be raised about a foot above the ground, so 
that air may circulate beneath and keep the sills from 
rotting. 

7 — C. C. M. 



98 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

Water Supply. A good well is an absolute neces- 
sity for a cheese factory; water can be pumped into a 
galvanized iron cistern placed above the curing room. 
This cistern should be set in a drip pan, which will 
catch any leak or sweat from it, and carry it outside 
without leaking through into the curing room. 

Hot Water. From the cistern, water may be car- 
ried in pipes to the different parts of the building. 
The water pipes should be galvanized. There can be 
a steam pipe running into the water pipe by a T, and 
the flowing water can be heated by turning steam into 
it. 

Sewer. In connection with the factory, there should 
be what is forgotten in nearly every factory, namely, 
a proper sewerage system. There should be regular 
six-inch sewer pipe underground, leading to a stream 
or blind-well, to convey the slops from the building. 

In locating a factory, farmers figure on the handiest 
place for them to haul their milk to, but usually do 
not at all consider the sewerage question. 

Blind- Well. If there is no stream handy the blind- 
well may have to be used. A blind-well, as one would 
surmise from the name, is a covered hole, into which 
the slops are run and absorbed by the ground. Care 
should be taken not to locate too near the water well, 
as the slops will in such cases percolate through the 
soil to the water supply. The danger from this source 
is greater in cases of gravelly, loose soils. There should 
be an opening to the surface of the ground, for gases 
will be generated and force their way back through 
the sewer pipe. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 99 

Sewer Trap. At the mouth of the sewer there 
should be a sewer trap, which is simply an CO shaped 
pipe, in which water constantly stands and keeps gas 
from coming up from the sewer. 

Sewer in Clay Soils. In a clay soil the slops will 
not be absorbed fast enough, and the sewer pipe will, 
in that case, have to divide into a number of forks to 
spread the material over the surface, or near the sur- 
face of the ground. The slops should, in that case, 
be carried six hundred feet away from the factory. 

Whey Tank, How Built. The whey tank should 
be lined with galvanized iron, and be placed high 
enough for a wagon to drive under, and draw off the 
whey by simply opening a valve. The ground ought 
to be paved in such a way that the drip will run off 
into the sewer. 

Elevating Whey, To get the whey from the vat 
into the whey tank, it can be drawn into a box or bar- 
rel, and from there forced by a steam jet into the whey 
tank. The whey should be scalded to keep it sweet, 
and after the patrons have gone every morning, the 
tank should be scrubbed out and steam turned into it 
to scald it out. There should be a platform around 
the tank and steps leading up, so that a person can 
get into it easily. 

Bath-room. One thing that a factory should have, 
though generally unthought of, is a bath-room. This 
can be placed above the curing room. A room, five 
by eight feet, can have a floor covered with galvanized 
iron, to catch any drip or slop, and a bath-tub put in. 
Hot and cold water can be connected with it, and a 
most desirable thing supplied. 



CHAPTER II. 

EQUIPMENT. 

For a factory of the capacity we are building - , we 
will need an eight horse power boiler. A horizontal 
brick arch boiler is preferable to a vertical one, as it 
will hold the heat better, and a person can more easily 
clean the flues. 

There should be a good steam-pump, and possibly 
an engine, though that is not absolutely necessary. 
For ten thousand pounds of milk, we will need two 
vats of a capacity of 5,200 pounds; these ought to be 
provided with whey gates for emptying them. 

Water Boxes of Vats Should be Lined. It is quite 
essential also, to have the water boxes of the vats 
lined with galvanized iron, or they will leak, making 
a bad mess on the floor. 

Curd Sink. It will be remembered that we said 
in Part I, that a curd sink was a necessary piece of 
apparatus in getting the curd drained properly; we 
must therefore have a curd sink constructed in the 
way suggested. (See page 42.) 

For the curd from 10,000 pounds of milk, two gang 
presses, and either twenty cheddar or forty flat hoops 
will be required. We should not attempt, as is quite 
commonly done, to press two flats in a cheddar hoop 
by putting a divider between. We cannot make an 
artistic looking cheese in that way. 

[100] 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



IOI 



Pressing Flats. Flat hoops do not cost near as 
much as they did a few years ago, and the expense 
will be but slightly increased in providing the neces- 
sary number of hoops. 

Sink, How Made. Another necessary thing, which 
is seldom found in a factory, is a good sink. It should 




WASH SINK. 



be iron or galvanized iron lined, and plenty large 
enough — say three feet long, by twenty inches wide, 
by twelve inches deep, properly connected with the 
sewer. At the end of the sink, should be a wide 
shelf or table inclined toward the sink, so that drip- 



102 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

pings will run off into the sink. This shelf is used to 
drain tinware on, and a steam jet projecting through 
it, can be used to sterilize utensils. 

We need hot and cold water connections at the 
sink, and perhaps a hot water barrel beside it. This 
barrel may be made of galvanized iron, and should be 
used for a supply of clean, hot water, rather than a 
place to wash dirty tools. This latter operation ought 
to be performed in the sink. 

Milk, How Lifted. If the roadway is not high 
enough to empty the milk directly into the weigh-can, 
a large wheel fixed tight on an axle is probably the 
best appliance for lifting the milk. An endless rope 
runs over the wheel, and by pulling this rope the wheel 
turns and winds up another rope on the axle. This 
rope has tongs on it, which take hold of the milk can. 

The weigh can is placed on an 800 lb. double beam 
scale, which stands in a receiving room or covered 
platform. This platform is built out on brackets in 
front of the factory. On one side of the room, is a 
shelf for the milk book, and another for the sample 
jars. The milk is run from the weigh can to the vat, 
through an open tin conductor. 

Milk TertiBg. For testing the milk, we should 
have a thirty-bottle, steam turbine, Babcock test, and 
a Quevenne lactometer. The Quevenne lactometer 
gives a direct reading of the specific gravity, and is 
used in connection with the Babcock fat test for de- 
tection of watered milk. The Babcock test is now 
used in most factories; and probably in one half of the 
factories, the milk is bought according to test. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 103 

That this is the only fair method of paying for milk, 
will be seen, for both the quantity and quality of the 
cheese made from the milk depend on its fat content. 

Appliances Needed. We will name over some of 
the minor articles needed in the factory, for some of 
them are usually found lacking, and sometimes there 
are not enough of the articles, to enable one to work 
handily. 

There ought to be two curd knives — horizontal and 
perpendicular — and they should be six or eight inches 
wide, and twenty inches long. 

We need a rennet test, and two or three reliable 
thermometers, for these are easily broken, and we 
must not run the risk of being without one. 




CONDUCTOR HEAD. 

We also need a hair sieve, linen strainer cloth, 
wash-dish, two curd pails, three or four twelve-quart 
tin pails, several dippers, one of which has a flat side, 
and a perforated-tin bottom, for skimming specks off 
from the mile. 

Curing Shelves* The shelves in the curing room 
are supported by cross pieces, attached to wooden 
posts. These posts are 4X4/S, reaching from floor to 
ceiling. The cross pieces are 2 x 4's, set into the 
4x4, to keep them from tilting, and a bolt put through 



104 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

to hold them in place. The shelves are sixteen foot 
boards; sixteen inches wide, and one and a half inches 
thick. They should be the clearest pine lumber ob- 
tainable. 

The shelving can run crosswise of the room, and if 
the boards are sixteen feet long, there will be a four 
foot passage on the side of the room next to the mak- 
ing room. At the further end of the room from the 
door to the making room, ten feet of space can be left 
for boxing cheese. 

Cost of Factory. The factory we have suggested 
will cost more than the ordinary run of factories, for 
it is much better. Nothing that will be a waste of 
money, has been suggested. Certain firms put up 
factories which are inferior to this, for which they get 
a third more money than this would cost. 

As the cost of material in different localities varies 
so much, we have not set a price on this factory, but 
the necessary facts are given, so that any one can fig- 
ure on the cost of the building for his own locality, 
and then reliable firms will furnish machinery at rea- 
sonable prices. 



CHAPTER III. 

MILK TESTING. 

When one stops to think that only ten years ago, 
or even less, the only means that a cheese maker had 
of determining the quality of milk was the crude test 
tube, where the milk was set for the cream to rise, 
and a lactometer that would read good milk when both 
skimmed and watered, he begins to realize what great 
progress has been made in milk testing in so short a 
time. This great change has been brought about by 
work done at the Agricultural Experiment Stations, 
and this one line of progress is paying large dividends 
on all the money that has been invested in them. 

Paying by Test. People often get confused about 
the justice of paying for milk, at cheese factories, ac- 
cording to the test. They think four per cent, milk 
ought to make a third more cheese than three per 
cent. milk. They do not consider the question of 
quality. If their proposition were true, no cheese 
could be made from thin skim milk with no fat in it. 
The facts are, that about five pounds of cheese can be 
made from one hundred pounds of such skim milk, 
which can be sold with great difficulty, for one cent 
a pound, or five cents per hundred of milk, after go- 
ing to the trouble of making the cheese. The milk is 
worth more than that for feeding purposes, before 
touching it for cheese, to say nothing of the cost of 

[105] 



106 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

making. Four per cent, milk will make ten pounds 
of cheese, that will sell for ten cents a pound, and one 
hundred pounds of four per cent, milk is worth one 
hundred cents. The skim milk made into cheese is 
worth five cents, or a difference of ninety-five cents 
for the fat. We have but five pounds more of cheese, 
but the difference in quality made by the fat is really 
the great difference. 

Very careful and extensive work has been done to 
find the effect of fat on the value of milk for cheese. 

Dr. Van Slyke took up the subject in New York at 
the Geneva Experiment Station and in a large num- 
ber of cheese factories, and found that the yield of 
cheese was proportional to the fat content of the milk. 
Henry Walvoord of Cedar Grove, Wis., a Wisconsin 
Dairy School student, was the first person in the world 
to operate a factory on the test plan. His work for 
two seasons agrees almost exactly with Dr. Van 
Slyke's. • 

Prof. Dean, of the Ontario Agricultural College, 
carried on less extensive experiments, but did not 
find the increase in yield directly porportional to the 
fat. 

Reports from Wisconsin Dairy School students rep- 
resenting forty million pounds of milk made into 
cheese, give very valuable information along this line, 
and Dr. Babcock has compiled the figures for an arti- 
cle in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Wisconsin 
Experiment Station. When these reports were ar- 
ranged according to months, he found that the yield 
of cheese varied from 2.57 pounds to 2.70 pounds, or 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



107 



an average of 2.63 pounds of cured cheese per pound 
of fat for the season. 

Table I. 

Yield of cheese in factories by months: 



Month. 


Number 

of 
Reports. 


Per Cent, 
of Fat. 


Yield of 

Cheese from 

100 Lbs. 

Milk. 


Cheese for 

One Pound 

of Fat. 


April 


22 

68 
66 
63 
49 
36 
28 

15 


3.48o 
3-493 
3-497 
3-554 
3.634 
3.836 
4.076 
4.254 


8.154 
9-447 
9.367 
9.231 

9-335 

9-955 

10.562 

10.947 


2.630 
2.704 


May 


Tune 


2.679 

2-593 
2.568 
2.594 

2.591 

2.573 


j ""^ 

July 


j j • • • 

August 


September 

October 

November 


Season 


347 


3.640 


9.566 


2.628 



These results were almost exactly the same as shown 
by Dr. Van Slyke's work. However, when these re- 
ports were grouped together according to per cent, of 
fat, a range in the quality of the milk from 3.13 per 
cent, to 4.45 per cent, was obtained, and a range in 
yield of from 2.41 lbs. for the poor to 2.94 pounds 
for the rich milk. 



io8 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



Table II. 

Yield of cheese arranged according to the per cent, 
of fat in milk. 









Yield of 


Pounds of 


Number of 


Range of Fat 


Average Fat 


Cheese Per 


Cheese for 


Reports. 


in Per Cent. 


Per Cent. 


100 Lbs. of 
Milk. 


One Pound 
of Milk. 


24 


Under 3.25 


3.126 


9.194 


2.941 


90 


3.25-3.50 


3.382 


9.235 


2.730 


134 


3 • 5o-3 • 75 


3.600 


9.407 


2.613 


43 


3.75-4.oo 


3.839 


9.806 


2.562 


36 


4.00-4.25 


4.09 


10.300 


2.512 


20 


Over 4.25 


4-447 


10.707 


2.407 


347 




3.640 


9.566 


2.628 



This is similar to what Prof. Dean found, and a 
person might infer from this that while the rich milk 
makes more cheese than poor milk, it is not more in 
proportion to the fat and therefore it cannot be fair 
to pay for milk in proportion to its fat content. But 
Dr. Babcock goes further and shows that while the 
richer milk does not make more cheese in proportion 
the fat goes into the cheese and makes it richer, and 
that the market reports put the value of cheese to be 
according to the fat it contains, and when figured 
back to the milk the money obtained for the cheese 
is more nearly directly proportional to the fat than 
to any other factor. That is, butter fat in milk is 

Note. Dr. Van Slyke has published his work in a number of bul- 
letins of the Geneva, N. Y., Experiment Station during 1893 and 1894. 
A good summary by him is given in the twenty-third annual report 
1893 of the Wisconsin Dairymen's Association. Mr. Walvoord's 
work referred to is also there given. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



IO9 



worth a certain price per pound, and whether the milk 
contains three or four and a half per cent, fat the 
value of it for cheese is that price per pound of fat 
that it contains. 

Composite Samples. The samples should be saved 
from each patron's milk every morning by stirring up 
the milk in the weigh can with a dipper. An ounce 
cup is then filled with the milk, and turned into the 
sample jar. 

Milk Thief. A still better way is to take the sam- 
ple with a milk thief, which is a long 
tube three-fourths of an inch in diam- 
eter, with a valve in the bottom. By 
lowering this into the weigh can a 
sample of the milk all the way down 
runs in at the bottom and the valve is 
closed by striking the bottom of the 
can. The tube is then drawn out and 
emptied through the upper end into 
the sample jar. 

Sample Jars should be Marked to 
Prevent Mistakes. Each jar has the 
number of the patron marked on it with 
asphalt paint, or in some other substan- 
tial way. 

Milk Samples. How Preserved. A 
small quantity of potassium bichromate, 
enough to color a jar of milk a bright yellow, is put 
into the jar, before any milk is put into it, and this 
chemical will preserve the milk for a week or more. 





VALVE END OF SCO 

VELL'S MILK THIEF 

USED AT WORLD'S 

FAIR. 



no 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



At the end of a week the composite sample of each 
patron's milk is tested, and the reading of the Babcock 
test is the percentage of fat in the whole of the week's 
milk. 

T 




WEIGH CAN. 



The Babcock Test. The Babcock 
test was invented by Dr. S. M. Bab- 
cock of the Wisconsin Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station, and published in 
Bulletin No. 24, July, 1890, and is now 
not only in general use in this country, 
but is also used in the different coun- 
TEST B0TTLEi tries of Europe, and India, New Zealand 

and Australia. It has literally "gone round the 

world." 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



I I I 



/ 



n,£cc. 



It consists of four parts: 

The Bottle. A bottle holding about two 
ounces and having a long, narrow neck, about 
the size of a lead pencil. On this neck is a 
scale covering a volume of two cubic centi- 
meters marked off into fifty divisions. Every 
five divisions marks one per cent, and each 
division is therefore two-tenths of one per cent. 

The Pipette. The pipette is a glass tube 
with a bulb in the middle for measuring the 
milk. There is a mark on the upper narrow 
stem indicating 17.6 c. c. which volume of av- 
erage milk would weigh eighteen grams. 

The Acid Measure. This is a glass cylinder 

\with a 17.5 c. c. mark on it for measuring the 
sulphuric acid used in making the test. 

The Centrifuge. This a machine for whorl- 
ing the bottles. It consists of a drum about 



V 



u 

PIPETTE. 




_z 



^ 



BABCOCK MILK TESTING MACHINE. 



ACID MEASURE. 



112 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

twenty inches in diameter with sockets on the circum- 
ference for holding the bottles. The drum is encased 
in a jacket and is driven by a crank or pulley and gear, 
or by a steam motor. 

To make the Test. The milk to be tested must be 
thoroughly stirred to get the fat globules evenly dis- 
tributed. This can be done by pouring from one ves- 
sel to another several times. If in the composite test 
the cream is somewhat hardened it can be dissolved 
by warming the milk a little, but this must be done 
with care as the milk will then churn easily. After the 
milk is thoroughly mixed draw it up into the pipette 
by suction with the mouth, and then quickly place the 
finger over the upper end of it. By letting air in 
slowly under the finger the milk will run out till it 
comes down to the 17.6 c. c. mark. Then deliver the 
contents into the bottle. Next measure 17. 5 c. c. sul- 
phuric acid into the bottle, and by a circular motion 
mix the acid and milk thoroughly till the milk is all 
dissolved, that is till no clots are left. 

Then put the bottle in the centrifuge and whorl five 
minutes. At the end of this time the fat will all be on 
the top of the liquid. Hot water is filled in to bring the 
fat up into the neck where the amount can be read on 
the scale. It is whorled another minute to bring the 
fat all into the neck in a solid mass. It must be read 
before it gets cold or in a perfectly liquid condition. 
The bulletin describing the test says 140 F. Better 
results may be obtained by first filling to the neck and 
whorling, and then filling into the neck for the final 
whorling. 






CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. I I 3 

Several points of caution should be observed to get 
uniformly clear readings and reliable tests. 

Strength of Acid. First the acid used should be 
commercial sulphuric acid of a specific gravity of 1.82 
to 1.83. If too strong the fat will be charred and 
there will be black specks in the fat. If too weak, 
there will be either white curdy matter with the fat or 
a clear test and not all of the fat. Dairy supply houses 
now furnish a hydrometer for testing the specific grav- 
ity of the acid. If it is 1.8 1 it is too weak, and if 
over 1.83 too strong. If the acid is not too much too 
strong or too weak we can obviate the difficulty by us- 
ing a little more or less as the case may require. One 
should observe the color of the fat. It ought to be a 
deep straw or yellow color. If white or light colored 
the acid is weak, if black it is too strong. As a gen- 
eral thing there is little difficulty in getting good acid. 

Dr. Babcock has invented an automatic acid measure 
which will fill the bottles with the right amount di- 
rectly from the acid bottle as fast as the bottles can be 
shaken. They should be shaken one at a time and 
not in a tray or in the machine together, as in that 
case the milk in some bottles is not thoroughly dis- 
solved. 

The acid should go to the bottom of the bottle with- 
out mixing with the milk till the final shaking. If it 
mixes partially and then is allowed to stand, part of 
milk will get the effect of the acid too strongly, will 
be charred, and appear in the fat as black specks. 

Speed of the Centrifuge. The speed of the ordin- 
ary tester, which is about eighteen inches in diameter, 

8— C. C. M. 



114 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

should be about one thousand revolutions per minute. 
The fat is forced to the top of the liquid by the centri- 
fugal pressure, and unless this pressure is sufficient all 
the fat will not be separated. If the speed is too great 
the bottles will fly to pieces. Dr. Babcock does not 
recommend a steam turbine test unless there is a speed 
indicator attached. A good many of these machines 
are supplied with steam gauges, but a steam gauge 
only indicates the pressure applied to the drum, and 
does not tell the speed. 

Reading the Fat. The column of fat should be 
read from the bottom line, where it meets the water, 
to the highest point where it joins the glass. The 
upper surface is curved, and quite often the test is 
read low by reading only to the lower part of the 
curve. It should be read as high as the fat goes 
The same thing applies when reading tests of whey. 
It is quite often read two tenths when four tenths is 
the amount present. A pair of dividers will aid 
greatly. Open them to the full length of the fat 
column, then place the lower point on the zero line, 
and the upper point will show the per cent, present at 
a glance. When reading without dividers errors in 
subtraction may occur. 

Testing Cheese. Cheese may be tested by the 
Babcock test for fat as well as milk. In making a 
milk test we take 17.6 c. c, or 18 grams. Cheese 
contains about one third fat, so that we cannot take 
18 grams; but if we balance the bottle on a small 
scale, such as druggists use for prescriptions, and 
weigh in four or five grams of cheese, we will have a 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. I I 5 

convenient amount for the test. The cheese can be 
cut into small strips which will drop down the neck of 
the bottle. Then add fifteen cubic centimeters of boil- 
ing water and a few drops of ammonia, and shake till 
the chese is dissolved into a creamy consistency. 
When the bottle is cold add acid, and test as though 
it were milk. The reading of the fat is then multi- 

18 
plied by — , a being the weight of cheese taken. The 

quotient will be the per cent, of fat in the cheese. If 
we weighed out five grams of cheese, and the reading 
of the fat is 7.1, we have (7.1 x 18) -~- 5, or 25.5% 
fat in the cheese. 

A little balance with weights and a bar, reading to 

one tenth of a gram, known 
as Troemner's balance, is sold 
by chemical supply houses 
for about eight dollars. 

Quevenne Lactometer. As 
has been stated, the Quevenne 
lactometer reads specific 
gravities directly. On the scale are a set of figures 
reading from 15 down to 40. These figures mean 
thousandths, that is, 30 means 1.030 specific gravity. 
If we have a barrel that will hold 1,000 lbs. of water 
at 6o°F. , and fill it with milk that reads 30 on our 
lactometer, we would have 1,030 lbs. of milk in the 
barrel. Now, if the milk is heated up above 6o°, one 
tenth of a pound will flow over the top for each degree 
above 6o° F. , and likewise for every degree the milk 
is lowered, a tenth of a pound more can be put into 




TROEMNER S BALANCE. 



Il6 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

the barrel. Sixty has been taken as an arbitrary- 
standard of temperature for specific gravity of milk, 
and we must temper the milk near to that point. If 
it varies a few degrees, the reading can be corrected 
by adding or subtracting one tenth to the reading of 
the lactometer for every degree of variation in tem- 
perature. Thus: if the lactometer reading is 32, and 
the temperature 65 , add .5 to 32, which would make 
the corrected reading for 6o° 32. 5. The best lactom- 
eters have a thermometer connected, and it is not 
advisable to use any other. 

Board of Health Lactometer. The Board of Health 
lactometer has an arbitrary scale reading from o to 
120; IOO is a specific gravity of 1.029, which corre- 
sponds to 29 on the Quevenne scale. This is the low- 
est specific gravity known for pure milk, the average 
being about 1.032 sp. g. This scale can be converted 
into the Quevenne scale by multiplying the reading 
by . 29. By so doing one can use the Board of Health 
instrument if a Quevenne is not available. 

Detecting Watered Milk. The solids other than 
fat make the milk denser and raise the lactometer, 
while the fat makes it lighter and lowers the instru- 
ment. Each per cent, of fat lowers it seven-tenths 
of a degree. If we multiply the per cent, of fat found 
by the Babcock test and add the product to the lac- 
tometer reading it will give the reading of the milk if 
the fat were not present. This is the way to elimin- 
ate the effect of the fat. If the specific gravity of 
the other solids is divided by 3.8, the result will be 
per cent, of solids not fat. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 117 

For instance, the lactometer reading is 31.5, the 
temperature 65°, and the fat 4 per cent., what is the 
per cent, of solids not fat? 

3i-5 + .5 = 32 +(4X. 7=2. 8) = 34. 8-3. 8= 9.10+% 
solids not fat. 

If the solids not fat run below 8. 5 per cent, fat it 
is very poor milk and probably watered. 

If 8. 5 per cent, solids not fat be taken as a basis 
for pure milk, and we find but 7.00 per cent, the way to 
get the amount of water added is readily found by 
proportion: 

7.0 : 8.5 :: x : 100 
8.5.3:= 700 
^=.832 + 

From which 82.3 + % is the milk found to be pres- 
ent in the sample or 17. 7 per cent, water has been 
added. 

When patrons are paid by the fat test it does not 
pay to go to the trouble of hauling water to the fac- 
tory. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OPERATING A FACTORY. 

Now that we have our factory in proper trim for 
working, a few suggestions about the methods of oper- 
ating may not be out of place. We will not take up 
the process of making cheese, as this has been fully 
treated in Part I. 

Iieep Clean. Cleanliness is the main factor under- 
lying the whole dairy business, and we must keep our 
factory clean. Almost every cheese-maker will keep 
the inside of the weigh-can and cheese vats clean, but 
the outside is often sorely neglected. Milk may be 
spilled on the floor, and not properly cleaned up. 
Water is slopped on the floor, and the maker wades 
through it without drying it up; when the whey is 

drawn from the vat, it often 
goes on the floor, and in order 
to keep his feet dry, he wears 
rubber boots. 

Rubber Boots. The rub- 
ber boots are an injury to 
his health and the slop un- 
necessary, to say nothing about the wear on the floor 
and its nasty appearance. We would think a woman 
who kept her kitchen floor in such condition, a very 
untidy housewife, and I see no reason why a factory 
floor should be slopped over any more than a kitchen 

[118] 




RUBBER MOP. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. I I 9 

floor. If any water accidentally gets onto the floor, it 
should be mopped up at once. 

Scrubbing the Floor. At the close of the day's 
work, the floor can be scrubbed, first with lukewarm, 
and then with hot water, and then dried off with a 
rubber mop. Hot water will make the floor dry 
quickly, but it should never be used first where milk 
has been spilled, or where milk or whey is on tinware, 
for heat will scald the milk on. 

Soaps. Powdered soap, such as ' 'Gold Dust, " is very 
effective in taking out dirt, but it is too expensive a 

form in which 
to use soap, as 
it dissolves 
readily and runs 
away. Salsoda 
floor scrub. is much cheaper 

and just as effective for a great many things, such as 
cleaning the floor. Sapolio is a soap mixed with in- 
fusorial earth, which may be used for scouring tin- 
ware. 

Towels. Clean towels and clean cloths, for wiping 
utensils, are ornaments in a factory. Many a time 
has the writer been in a factory and looked for a towel 
without finding even a dirty one. 

Several good scrubbing brushes are needed in a fac- 
tory, and one of them should be of rice root for scrub- 
bing cheese hoops and greasy articles. 

In scrubbing the floor, the mop board should not be 
forgotten, nor the doors and other wood work. If the 
maker is careful in scrubbing the floor every day, a 




120 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

general scrubbing once a week will keep things look- 
ing bright. 

Shelves for Trinkets. The windows should be kept 
as clean as those in a dwelling house, nor should tools 
and little trinkets be laid on the window-sills. There 
should be shelves for all such things. 

The curing room should likewise be kept in order. 
It should not be a dumping place for all sorts of ma- 
terial, which properly goes into the store room above. 

How to Kill Moulds. If at the beginning of the 
season, the walls are sprinkled with water, and the room 
closed tight while two or three pounds of sulphur is 
burned in it, moulds will be killed. 

Antiseptics. A still better way is to wash the 
walls with limewater. Limewater is a disinfectant, 
and should be used wherever it can be applied. Com- 
mercial sulphate of iron, or copperas or green vitriol, 
as it is commonly called, is also a disinfectant, and 
should be put into drains and places that are likely to 
smell bad. 

To Prevent Dust. The boiler room must not be 
neglected. If coal is used, coal dust can be prevented 
by sprinkling the coal with water. The floor should 
be kept cleanly swept, and should be mopped twice a 
week, or as often as needed. Tools should have their 
regular places and be kept there. 

The reader may think it a waste of space to talk 
about all these little matters, but experience has 
taught the writer that they are the foundation of the 
business of cheese making; and makers often fail, be- 
cause they do not recognize the fact. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 121 

It is much easier to keep a clean factory than a 
dirty one, for the old saying that "an ounce of pre- 
vention is worth a pound of cure" is true here, as well 
as in other cases. 

Factory Surroundings. Having got the inside of 
the factory clean, why not make the outside of it to 
match? Plant some trees, and in painting the factory, 
choose white or some light color, that will not absorb 
but reflect, the heat. A little extra effort may be put 
into graveling the roadways, to prevent them being 
cut up in wet weather. Level off the ground for a 
little space, seed it down, and cut the grass with a 
lawn-mower. If a dry spell comes we have plenty of 
water in our well, and can sprinkle the lawn with our 
steam pump. These things would take but little ex- 
tra effort, and I think all will agree, that the result 
would fully repay the effort, 

Why should it not be the rule that a cheese factory 
is to be kept not only clean, but attractive as well? 



CHAPTER V. 



THE MILK PRODUCER'S RESPONSIBILITY. 

Aeration of Milk. During the last fivel 'years, the 
subject of aeration of milk has received a good deal of 
attention. 

According to the 
old system of caring 
foremilk, the patrons 
of a cheese factory 
were instructed to 
cool the milk as 
quickly as possible. 
Very often the milk 
was not properly 
cooled, and the milk 
would arrive at the 
factory sour. 

We now hear 
cheese makers i n- 
structing their pat- 
rons to aerate their 
milk and not cool it, 
and many devices 
have been invented 
for this purpose. 

Different Styles 
of Aerators. By 
aeration is meant, 

122] 




HOWARD S AERATOR. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 



123 



that the milk is thoroughly exposed to the air. This 
may be done by pouring the milk with a large dipper, 
or allowing it to slowly trickle through small holes in 
a vessel, the fine streams of milk falling through the 
air into the milk can, or it may flow in a thin film 
over the surface of the apparatus, or air may be blown 
through the milk by means of an air pump. 

What Aeration Does. By aerating the milk, ani- 
mal odors and bad flavors escape. Of course the oper- 
ation must be done in a sweet, clean atmosphere, or 
the milk will be inoculated with foul germs. 

As a rule, milk that has 
been aired will keep sweet 
longer than milk that has not 
been aired, the conditions of 
temperature being the same, 
but the main advantage claimed 
for aeration is that the gases 
and bad odors escape, and the 
milk is better flavored. 

In those factories where the 
patrons have practiced this, it 
has not been necessary to cool 
the milk, excepting for a few 
nights in the hottest weather. 
It is a safe rule, however, to 
have the milk a little too sweet rather than a little too 
sour, but in the fall, when the nights are cool, patrons are 
inclined to continue cooling the milk, the same as in 
hot weather, and the cheese-maker is obliged to wait 
till afternoon for his milk to ripen, or he will have 
* 'sweet-cheese. " 




MILK AERATOR. 



124 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

Keep Barn Clean. The great cause of bad milk is 
dirt. The barn should be kept scrupulously clean, 
and lime water, and other antiseptics, freely used. 
The cows catch a multitude of germs in their hair 
while moving around in the grass, especially in 
swampy ground, and the germs fall into the milk at 
milking time. 

Their bellies and udders should be washed, as well 
as the hands of the milkers, and if the milk vessels 
have been washed clean and scalded, there will be 
little danger of foul milk. 

Old Milk Cans to be Discarded, Milk cans which 
have passed their days of usefulness, and become rusty 
and cracked, should be discarded, for they often spoil 
more milk than ten new cans would cost. Such old 
cans will be tinkered up by putting a double bottom 
on, or a patch over a hole, under which patch or bot- 
tom the milk will soon find its way and cause trouble. 

Wooden Milking Pails Should Not be Used. It 
sometimes happens that wooden pails are used for 
milking in. The milk gets into the cells of the wood, 
and into the joints, and ferments, and no matter what 
precautions are taken, such pails cannot be kept 
clean. 

Patrons should be Educated. The patron has his 
share in the work of producing good cheese, by prop- 
erly caring for the milk till it arrives at the factory, 
and while his intentions may be good, he is often un- 
conscious of his errors, and the cheese-maker should 
endeavor to instruct him in the proper caring for milk. 






CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 1 2 £ 

Dairy Newspapers. We have spoken of educating 
the patrons and it may not be out of place to here re- 
mind the reader that the dairy newspaper is a great 
factor in dairy education. Get your patrons to sub- 
scribe for one or more strictly dairy papers and good 
fruit will be sure to come. The subscription price of 
a paper is often more than returned in one number. 

The cheese maker himself should keep files of a 
number of these papers and a scrap book for clippings 
from the dairy columns of general agricultural papers. 
One often wants to refer to some article and he can. 
soon find it if he keeps such a scrap book. 



CHAPTER VI. 

ORGANIZATION OF CHEESE FACTORY 
ASSOCIATION. 

Cheese factories are operated on two plans, namely, 
the private and stock company systems. In the first 
named plan the factory is owned by an individual who 
furnishes everything in the manufacture, and receives 
a certain price per pound for such manufacture, the 
milk and the cheese being all the time considered the 
property of the patrons. The patrons then have some 
form of organization for the purpose of selling the 
cheese and dividing the money, and looking after their 
interests generally. 

Under the other system the farmers' organization 
goes further and owns the factory, and the officers do 
all business and hire a cheese maker to manufacture 
the cheese. 

The following by-laws will give a general idea of 
how to organize such an association: 

BY-LAWS FOR A CHEESE FACTORY ASSOCIATION. 

Article I. Name — This Association shall be known as the 

Cheese Company. 

Article II. Capital Stock — The capital stock of the Association 
shall be $4,000, divided into two hundred shares of twenty dollars 
each. 

Article III. Officers — The officers shall be a president who shall 
have general oversight of the business of the Association and prose- 
cute any case at law that may arise. A treasurer who shall receive 
and disburse all money and keep a proper set of books which shall be 

[126] 






CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 127 

open to inspection of any member of the Association at any time. 

He shall be the salesman for the Association. He shall receive $ 

per annum for his services. A secretary who shall figure all milk 
dividends. He shall be Chairman of the Milk Committee. 

Article IV. There shall be semi-annual meetings of the Associa- 
tion on the first Tuesday in March and October, three days notice 
of the time and place of meeting to be given by the president. Spe- 
cial meetings may be called by the president, three days notice of the 
time and place to be given, and upon the written request of ten mem- 
bers of the Association the president shall call such a meeting. 

Article V. The division of money for cheese sold shall be deter- 
mined by the fat test of the milk, after expense of making has been 
deducted. The remaining amount of money shall be divided by the 
number of pounds of butter fat delivered during the time said cheese 
was made to determine the price per pound of butter fat, and each 
patron shall receive that price per pound for the butter fat delivered 
by him during that time. 

Article VI. Test Committee — There shall be a test committee of 
three members beside the secretary who shall assist the cheese maker 
in testing the milk. 

Article VII. The price for making cheese shall be one and a half 
cents per pound. 

Article VIII. The cheese maker may reject any milk that in his 
judgment will not make first class cheese. 

Article IX. No milk will be received at this factory that has not 
been properly strained and aerated. 

Article X. These by-laws may be altered at any legal meeting by 
a two-thirds vote of the members present, providing there are at 
least ten members present at such meeting. 

The above by-laws can, of course, be changed to 
suit any particular locality or conditions. The 
amount of capital stock may be altered, or such 
articles changed as to make them suit a private 
factory. 

Article VI, which organizes a test committee, is 
for the purpose of preventing dissentions. We quite 
often hear it stated that the maker reads the tests low to 
get a larger yield, or that he favors one patron more than 



128 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

another. Such statements may be founded on facts, 
but are generally the results of suspicions. Now if 
the patrons have a committee of their number to see 
the tests made, such a committee can not fail to 
secure justice. 

The matter of the number that shall constitute a 
quorum has been purposely left out, for in such an as- 
sociation it is not very important, and might hinder 
in the business of some meetings. The article on the 
revision of the by-laws contains a clause that practi- 
cally names a quorum in such a case. 

In some Canadian stock companies there are two 
rates charged for making the cheese, a stockholders' 
rate and a patrons' rate, which is higher than the 
former. The patron is not entitled to whey. It be- 
longs to the corporation, to be fed to hogs owned by 
the association, or disposed of as the stockholders see 
fit. Each share of milk entitles the owner to have 
fifteen thousand pounds of milk made up at stock- 
holders' rates, and after that he must either get another 
share of the stock or pay patrons' rate for all milk 
made up above that amount. The object of this rule 
is to make each patron take a financial interest in the 
factory. 

Perhaps this is the proper place to speak of figur- 
ing dividends. As is indicated in one of the by-laws, 
the price per pound of butter fat should be found and 
each patron paid for the pounds of fat delivered by 
him. 

Cheese may be sold each week, but the dividends 
made for the month. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 1 29 

The composite samples of milk are saved as de- 
scribed under the head milk testing, and tested once 
a week. The pounds of milk delivered by the patron 
multiplied by the per cent, of fat gives the pounds of 
fat delivered by him. The amount of money left after 
paying all expenses is then divided by the total pounds 
of fat for the month to get the price per pound of fat. 
And then the number of pounds of fat delivered by 
each patron, multiplied by the price per pound, gives 
the amount due him. Theoretically the pounds of 
milk delivered each week should be multiplied by the 
weekly test, but the tests from week to week if aver- 
aged together for the month, and then the monthly 
milk multiplied, will give very close to the amount 
found if each week's fat were found and added to- 
gether for the month, and a large amount of labor is 
saved. 

If there is a small surplus or shortage of money in 
figuring it can be added to or subtracted from the next 
month's money before determining the price per pound. 

For an example of dividing money suppose there 
are three patrons, and during the month they deliver 
milk as follows: 

A 3,000 lbs. milk testing 4. o %— 120 lbs. fat. 

B 2,200 lbs. " " 3. 5 %— 77 lbs. fat. 

C 1 , 000 lbs. " " 4. 5 %== 45 1 bs. fat. 

Total for month.. 6,200 lbs. " " 3.90 $=242 lbs. fat. 
By dividing the pounds of fat by the pounds of milk 
for the month and multiplying by 100 we get the av- 
erage test of all the milk for the month. It is not 
needed in the figuring of the dividends, but it is inter- 
esting to know what the average test is. 

9 — C. C. M. 



130 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

Suppose the cheese made from the milk was 620 
pounds and sold for 10 cents per pound. We then 
have $62.00. The cost of making was $9.30, and we 
have left $52.70 to be divided among the patrons. 
By dividing this amount by the 242 pounds of fat we 
get 21.777 cents per pound. Then 

A has 120 lbs. fat @ 21.777 cts. = $26.13240 

B has 70 lbs. fat @ 21.777 cts. = 16.76829 

C has 45 lbs. fat @ 21.777 cts. = 979965 



Total $52. 70034 

We had $52.70 to be divided. One should al- 
ways prove his figures to be sure they are correct. 

A statement containing all necessary items should 
be given each patron so that he can figure the divi- 
dend for himself. There should be a printed form for 
this. The following may be used: 

MUSCODA CHEESE ASSOCIATION FACTORY. 

Statement for 

Month of 18 

Sales include following dates to 

No. pounds of cheese sold lbs^ 

Amount of money received $ 

Average price per pound cts. 

No. pounds of milk delivered 

No. pounds of fat delivered 

Average test 

Expenses 

Money to be divided 

Which leaves cts. per pound of fat. 

No. pounds of milk delivered by you 

Your average test 






CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 131 

Pounds of fat delivered by you 

At cents per pound $ 

Dr. by pounds of cheese at cts. per pound 

Money due you 

No. pounds, of fat required for 1 pound cheese 

No. pounds of cheese from 100 pounds milk 



Sec. 



PART III. 

Questions for Aiding in a More Thorough 

Study of the Subjects Treated in 

Parts I and II. 



The answers to these questions will be found on 
the pages indicated at the end of the questions. 

MILK. 

I: What is milk? p. I. 

2. What substances are found in milk? p. i. 

3. How much water is there in cow's milk? p. 1. 

4. How much ash is there in cow's milk? p. 1. 

5. What is the ash of milk? p. 2. 

6. How much albuminous substance is there in 

milk? p. 2. 

7. What is the difference between albumen and cas- 

ein? p. 4. 

8. How much sugar is there in milk? p. 1. 

9. How does milk sugar compare with cane sugar? 

p. 1. 

10. How much fat is there in cow's milk? p. 1. 

11. What proportion of the milk is solids? p. I. 

12. What substances are in solution? p. 4. 

13. What is an emulsion? p. 2. 

14. What substance is in emulsion? p. 2. 

15. What is the size of fat globules in cow's milk? 

p. 2. 

16. What is colostrum milk? p. 3. 

[132] 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 1 33 

17. How does colostrum differ from normal milk? 

P. 3- 

18. Why should not colostrum milk be used for mak- 

ing cheese? p. 3. 

19. How long after calving before cow's milk can be 

used for cheese? p. 3. 

20. What is whey? p. 4. 

21. What is curd? p. 4. 

22. What does the fat of milk do in a cheese? p. 4. 

23. What determines the value of milk for cheese? 

p. 4. 

FERMENTATIONS OF MILK. 

24. What change does casein undergo in the manu- 

facture of cheese? p. 6. 

25. What are the two general classes of ferments? 

p. 6. 

26. What are organized ferments? p. 6. 

27 . Describe the structure of a bacterium, p. 8. 

28. What is the difference between bacilli, cocci and 

yeasts? p. 8. 

29. What is the cause of nearly all the trouble we 

have in making cheese? p. 6. 

30. Could we make good cheese without bacteria? 

p.*6. 

31. What are the desirable flavors in cheese? p. 6. 

32. What is the lactic ferment and what substance 

in the milk does it attack? p. 6. 

33. What is the most important point in cheese 

making? p. 7. 

34. What is the cause of pinholes in cheese? p. 7. 



134 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

35. What is the difference between "pinholes" and 

"Swiss holes?" p. 7. 

36. What is the butyric fermentation? p. 7. 

37. What is the alkaline curdling of milk? p. 7. 

38. What are "ropy" and "slimy" milks, and how are 

they caused? p. 8. 

39. What is the cause of bitter milk? p. 7. 

40. What are unorganized ferments? p. 9. 

41. What is the test for distinguishing between or- 

ganized and unorganized ferments? p. 9. 

42. What is an enzyme? p. 9. 

43. What kind of ferments are rennet and pepsin? 

p. 9. 

44. Are enzymes ever produced by organized fer- 

ments? p. 9. 

45. Where is rennet found? p. 10. 

46. How does rennet curdle milk? p. 10. 

47. What salts will curdle milk? p. 10. 

48. What is the effect of heat on the action of ren- 

net? p. 10. 

49. At what temperature is rennet destroyed? p. II. 

50. What is the effect of the acidity of milk on the 

action of rennet? p. 11. 

51. How does acid or alkali artificially added to the 

milk operate on the action of the rennet? p. 1 1. 

52. Does rennet exhaust itself in its action? p. II. 

53. What is rennet extract? p. 12. 

54. Are different lots of rennet extract alike? p. 11. 

55. What is the cause of varying strength of rennet 

extract? p. 11. 

56. How is rennet extract made? p. 12. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. I 35 

57. Why should not whey be used to soak rennets 

in? p. 13. 

58. Why is it better to buy reliable rennet extract 

rather than make it ourselves? p. 13. 

THE RENNET TEST. 

59. What is the cause of "Swiss holes?" p. 14. 

60. On what three factors is rennet action depend- 

ent? p. 14. 

61. If we use the same rennet, at the same temper- 

ature of the milk each time, what is variation 
with which it coagulates the milk due to? 

P. 15. 

62. Who was the discoverer of the rennet test, and 

what did he first use for measuring the rennet 
and milk? p. 15. 

63. What proportion of rennet to milk do we use in 

making cheese? p. 15. 

64. What is the objection to using glass graduates 

for measuring rennet and milk? p. 15. 

65. What is the Monrad rennet test? p. 16. 

66. How is the rennet and milk measured in the 

Monrad test, and what is the object in dilut- 
ing the rennet? p. 17. 

67. Why should the milk be stirred with a thermom- 

eter, when making the rennet test? p. 18. 

68. At what temperature should a rennet test be 

made? p. 18! 

69. What precautions should be taken in making a 

rennet test? p. 17. 



I36 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

70. What does the rennet test tell us, and to what 

point should the milk be ripened each day? 
p. 18. 

7 1 . Starting with the season's work, how does a maker 

find to what number of seconds he must ripen 
his milk? p. 19. 

72. What is a starter and why do we use one? p. 19. 

73. How is a starter prepared? p. 24. 

74. Why should we not save a starter from the vat? 

p. 25. 

75. Why should we not use whey for a starter? p. 25. 

76. How do we compare rennet extracts? p. 20. 

J J. What two conditions must always be alike, and 
what is the third factor we seek, when com- 
paring rennet extracts? p. 20. 

78. Suppose we have two kinds of rennet extract, A 

and B, offered to us, the price of A being $1. 50 
per gallon, and B $1.25. On making com- 
parative tests we find A coagulates the milk 
in thirty seconds, and B in fifty seconds. Which 
is the cheaper extract? p. 20. 

79. C sells an extract for $1.35 per gallon and D 

sells one for $1.45. C's extract coagulates the 
milk in seventy seconds, while D's extract 
takes sixty seconds. What will C's extract be 
worth when compared with the price of D's 
extract, and what will D's extract be worth 
when compared with C's? p. 21. 

80. (a) With the rennet test, E extract coagulates 

the milk in 80 seconds, and F extract coagu- 
lates it in 100 seconds. With E extract three 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. I 37 

ounces will coagulate 1000 lbs. of milk in 
twenty minutes. How long will it take four 
ounces of F extract to coagulate 1000 lbs. of 
milk? (b) How much F extract must we use 
to coagulate 1000 lbs. of milk in twenty min- 
utes? p. 20. 

81. If the rennet test of A is thirty seconds, and B 

fifty seconds, and four ounces of A will coagu- 
late 1,000 lbs. of milk in 20 minutes, how long 
will it take five ounces of B? p. 21. 

82. In what terms should the action of rennet be ex- 

pressed? p. 21. 

FIRST STEPS IN CHEESE MAKING. 

S3. If a maker is suspicious that his milk is over 
ripe, what is the first thing he should do? 

P- 23. 

84. What is the effect of over ripe milk on the yield 

of cheese? p. 24. 

85. What is the usual loss of fat in the whey of nor- 

mal working milk? 

86. At what temperature should the milk be set? 

p. 26. 

87. What would be the effect of setting milk at 98°F. ? 

p. 26. 
S8. How much rennet should be used for a fast curing 
cheese? p. 26. 

89. How much rennet should be used for a slow cur- 

ing cheese? p. 26. 

90. How should rennet be diluted before adding to 

the milk? p. 26. 



138 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

91. How long should the milk be stirred after adding 

the rennet? p. 27. 

92. Why do we stir the milk after adding the ren- 

net? p. 27. 

CUTTING THE CURD. 

93. When is the curd ready to cut? p. 27. 

94. In cutting the curd, which knife is used first? 

p. 28. 

95. How is the knife inserted and withdrawn from 

the curd? p. 28. 

96. What is the effect of jamming the curd? p. 28. 

97. How many times should a curd be cut? p. 30. 

98. How should a fast-working curd be cut? p. 28. 

HEATING THE CURD. 

99. Why do we heat a curd? p. 31. 

100. How fast should a curd be heated? p. 31. 

101. What would be the effect of heating a curd too 

fast? p. 31. 

102. When should we begin heating the curd? p. 31. 

103. How should we heat an over ripe curd? p. 31. 

104. What would be the effect of heating a normal- 

working curd up to io8°F. ? p. 33. 

105. What is a "corky" cheese? p. 33. 

106. How high should a normal-working curd be 

heated? p. 33. 

107. Why is a correct thermometer a necessity? p. 

33. 

108. What would be the effect, if a curd were not 

stirred after cutting? p. 31. 

109. How is the curd stirred? p. 34. 






CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. I 39 

1 10. Describe a McPherson curd-rake. p. 34. 

ill. How can we tell when a curd is properly cooked? 

P- 35- 

DRAWING THE WHEY. 

112. When should the whey be drawn from the 

curd? p. 36. 

113. What is meant by "an eighth of an inch" of 

acid? p. 36. 

114. Can a curd that will string, be made from milk 

fresh from the cow? p. 36. 

115. What is the effect of too much acid on a curd 

and in the cheese? p. 37. 

116. If we find we have an over ripe curd how should 

it be treated? p. 37. 

117. How much acid may be run in the whey with- 

out injury to the curd? p. 37. 

118. Why do we use curd racks? p. 37. 

119. Describe a curd rack. p. 37. 

120. What kind of cloth is used on the curd racks? 

p. 38. 

121. How are the racks put into the vat? p. 38. 

1 22. Why do we cut the curd on the racks into blocks? 

P- 39- 

123. How should the curd on the racks be turned? 

P- 39- 

124. How often should a curd on the racks be turned? 

p. 40. 

125. How should a curd with pin-holes in it be han- 

dled? p. 38. 

126. If a curd is tainted, how should it be treated? 

p. 40. 



140 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

127. When is the best time to wash a tainted curd? 

p. 40. 

128. What are the causes of tainted curds? p. 41. 

129. When should cabbages, turnips, and such foods, 

if fed at all, be given to the cows? p. 41. 

130. What is a curd sink? p. 42. 

131. What are the common defects of curd sinks? 

p. 42. 

132. How should a curd sink be built? p. 42. 

133. In what way is a curd sink an advantage over 

racks in the vat? p. 42. 

134. How should the curd be dipped into the curd 

sink? p. 42. 

135. Why should the curd be kept warm? p. 43. 

136. How high should a curd be piled? p. 43. 

137. Should an over ripe curd be piled? p. 43. 

MILLING THE CURD. 

138. When is a curd ready to mill? p. 44. 

139. How much acid should a curd have when ready 

to mill? p. 44. 

140. Describe the common peg mill. p. 44. 

141. Describe the Pohl mill. p. 46. 

142. Describe the McPherson mill. p. 47. 

143. Describe the Harris mill. p. 47. 

144. Describe the common knife mill. p. 46. 

145. What are the objections to peg mills? p. 44. 

146. What are the objections to knife mills? p. 48. 

147. What are the advantages of knife mills? p. 48. 

148. Why do we stir the curd after milling? p. 49. 






CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. I4T 

149. What is a convenient tool for stirring the curd? 

p. 49- 
1 50. If a curd is very gassy, how can the gas be gotten 
• rid of? p. 49. 

151. What is the effect of dry acid on a cheese, and 

how much acid should a curd have when put 
to press? p. 50. 

152. Is there any danger of getting too much "dry 

acid" in a curd? p. 50. 

SALTING THE CURD, 

153. What are the four tests to determine when a 

curd is ready to salt? p. 51. 

154. What is common salt? p. 51. 

155. Where is salt found? p. 51. 

156. What are the impurities in salt? p. 52. 

157. What is the effect of calcium chloride in salt? 

p. 52. 

158. What is the effect of salt on the curd? p. 53. 

159. What is the effect of too much salt in cheese? 

P- 53- 

160. How does salt affect the yield of cheese? p. 54. 

161. How much salt should be used for a fast curing 

cheese? p. 55. 

162. How much salt should be used for a slow curing 

cheese? p. 55. 

163. Should a moist curd be salted the same as a 

normal curd? Why? p. 55. 

164. How should salt be applied to a curd? p. 55. 

165. What should be the temperature of the curd 

when salted? p. 55. 



142 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

1 66. What should be the condition of a salted curd, 

when ready for the press? p. 56. 

PRESSING THE CHEESE. 

167. At what temperature should a curd be put to 

press? p. 57. 

168. If a curd is too warm when put to press, what 

is the effect? p. 58. 

169. If a curd is too cold, what difficulty is met in 

pressing? p. 58. 

170. What are the common packages for American 

cheese? p. 58. 

171. What are the two kinds of presses used? p. 58. 

172. What is the objection to a gang press? p. 59. 

173. What two kinds of cheese bandage are used? 

p. 60. 

174. What is the objection to starched bandage? 

p. 60. 

175. How may a cheese that fails to close in the hoop 

be closed? p. 60. 

176. How far should the bandage lap over onto the 

ends of the cheese? p. 60. 

177. What are cheese cloth circles? p. 65. 

178. Should a circle lap over or under the bandage? 

p. 65. 

179. How large should a circle be? p. 65. 

180. Why should not square press cloths be used? 

p. 60. 

181. How full should a cheese hoop be filled? p. 61. 

182. How fast should a press be tightened? p. 61. 

183. How should a cheese be "dressed?" p. 62. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 143 

184. Why should the bandages be put into the hoops, 

after dressing the cheese? p. 62. 

185. Why do we press a cheese? p. 62. . 

186. Why should two flats not be pressed in a Ched- 

dar hoop? p. 101. 

187. If cheese stick to the hoops, how should the 

hoops be treated? p. 63. 

188. What is the effect of pounding the hoops, to 

get the cheese out? p. 63. 

189. What is the objection to using a knife to get the 

cheese out? p. 63. 

190. How often should the hoops be washed? p. 63. 

191. When and why do we grease the rinds of a 

cheese? p. 64. 

192. What makes cheese crack? p. 64. 

193. What is the objection to a cracked cheese? p. 64. 

194. What is the effect of high acid in cheese placed 

in cold storage? p. 64. 

195. How can mouldy cheese be cleaned? p. 65. 

196. How can mould, to a large extent, be prevented 

from forming on cheese? p. 66. 

197. Why should a daily record of the making be 

kept? p. 6y. 

CURING OF THE CHEESE. 

198. What is the proper temperature for a curing 

room? p. 68. 

199. Why is fresh air needed in curing cheese? p. 68. 

200. Why should the younger cheese be placed on 

the upper shelves? p. 69. 

201. How old should a cheese be, before shipping? 

p. 69. 



144 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

202. Why is a ripe cheese easier digested than a green 

one? p. 69. 

203. What is a hygroscope or hygrometer? p. 70. 

204. What is a psychrometer? p. 70. 

205. What is the principle on which the hygrometer 

works? p. 70. 

206. What is the principle on which the psychrometer 

works? p. 70. 

207. What is meant by relative humidity? p. 71. 

208. How should the psychrometer reading be taken? 

p. 71. 

209. What should be the relative humidity in the cur- 

ing rooms? p. 75. 

210. What may be the relative humidity in dry 

weather? p. 75. 

211. What should be done in very moist weather to 

keep cheese from moulding? p. 75. 

212. How can moisture be supplied to a curing room? 

P. 75- 

213. How large should the cloths be? p. 76. 

214. If the cloths get stiff from sediment, how should 

they be treated? p. 76. 

SHIPPING THE CHEESE. 

215. How are cheese boxed for shipping? p. 77. 

216. What are scale boards? p. 77. 

217. How many scale boards should be used on the 

ends and between the cheese? p. 77. 

218. Why are scale boards used? p. 77. 

219. How and why should boxes be trimmed? p. 77. 

220. Why should not a poor box be used? p. 78. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 145 

221. What is the penalty in Wisconsin for making 

adulterated cheese? p. 81. 

222. How are cheese weighed? p. 78. 

223. How and where should the weights of cheese be 

marked on the boxes? p. 78. 

224. How are cheese sold? p. 79. 

JUDGING CHEESE. 

225. What are the points in scoring cheese? p. 82. 

226. What importance is attached to the flavor of a 

cheese? p. 83. 

227. What is considered a good flavor? p. 83. 

228. Can the flavor of a cold cheese be readily de- 

tected? p. 83. 

229. How is a plug pulled from a cheese? p. 82. 

230. Of how much importance is the texture of a 

cheese? p. 83. 

231. What are the qualities of a good texture? p. 84. 

232. Of what importance is salt in the scoring of a 

cheese and how is it determined? p. 84. 

233. Of what importance is the color of a cheese? 

p. 85. 

234. What should be the color of a cheese to which 

no color has been artificially added? p. 85. 

235. How can we tell the quality of a cheese from its 

outside appearance? p. 85. 

236. If a cheese is mottled on the rind, what does it 

indicate? p. 85. 

237. Where should a cheese be plugged? p. 83. 

238. What is meant by quality according to the Eng- 

lish scale of judging? p. 86. 

10 — C. C. M. 



I46 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

PART II. 
THE CONSTRUCTION OF FACTORIES. 

239. How, in their construction, are cheese factories 

usually wrong? p. 88. 

240. What is usually the trouble with the curing 

room? p. 88. 

241. What is usually wrong about the whey tank? 

P . 89. 

242. Why is hot water a necessity in a factory? p. 89. 

243. What is the first thing necessary in building a 

factory? p. 92. 

244. How should the walls of a factory be built? p. 93. 

245. How should the ceiling and floor of the curing 

room be constructed? p. 93. 

246. How should fresh air be supplied to a curing 

room? p. 95. 

247. What is a sub-earth duct? p. 95. 

248. How should the doors of the curing room be 

constructed? p. 94. 

249. How should a sub-earth duct be built? p. 96. 

250. Of what kind of material should the curing 

shelves be made, and what should be their di- 
mensions? p. 103. 

251. What kind of a floor should there be in the mak- 

ing room? p. 93. 

252. How should the water tanks to the vats be made? 

p. 100. 

EQUIPMENT. 

253. Why is a whey-gate necessary on a cheese vat? 

p. 100. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 147 

254. How should the wash sink be constructed? 

p. 101. 

255. What kind of a gang-press should we have? 

p. 59. 

256. How should the boiler room be lined? p. 97. 

257. How should the sewer be constructed? p. 98. 

258. What is a blind well? p. 98. 

259. How should a blind well be ventilated? p. 99. 

260. How should the whey tank be constructed? p. 85. 

261. How often should the whey tank be cleaned out? 

P. 99- 

262. How should the floors be kept clean? p. 119. 

263. What is a sewer trap? p. 99. 

264. How can the whey be elevated to the whey tank? 

P. 99- 

265. Why should steam be used in a factory? p. 89. 

266. How can the milk be lifted to the weigh can? 

p. 102. 

MILK TESTING. 

267. Is it doing justice to pay for milk according to 

its fat content? p. 105. 

268. How much cheese can be made from 100 lbs. of 

separator skim milk, in which there is no fat 
left? p. 105. 

269. How much money will such skim milk cheese be 

worth? p. 105. 

270. Would it not pay better to feed such milk to hogs? 

p. 105. 

271. How much cheese will 100 lbs. of 4 per cent, fat 

milk make? p. 105. 



148 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

272. How much money will well made cheese from 4 

per cent, fat milk bring? p. 105. 

273. According to the answers to questions 267 to 

272, — what is the most valuable part of the 
milk for cheese? p. 105. 

274. Is the yield of cheese proportional to the fat con- 

tent of the milk? p. 108. 

275. What work has been done relative to the effect 

of fat on the yield of cheese? p. 106. 

276. Who was the first man to pay for milk for cheese 

according to test? p. 106. 
2yy. How should samples of milk be taken and pre- 
served, for a composite test to be made once a 
week? p. 109. 

278. How should the sample jars be marked? p. 109. 

279. What small utensils are important in a factory? 

p. 103. 

280. When was the Babcock test invented? p. no. 

281. What are the parts of the Babcock test? p. in. 

282. What weight of average milk does the pipette 

hold? p. 114. 

283. What kind of acid is used in the test? p. 112. 

284. What strength of acid is required? p. 113. 

285. How will the test act if the acid is too weak? 

p. 113. 

286. How will the test act if the acid is too strong? 

p. 113. 

287. What will cause black specks in the fat? p. 113. 

288. How should one read the fat? p. 114. 

289. How can cheese be tested with the Babcock test? 

p. 114. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 1 49 

290. What distinguishes the Quevenne from other 

lactometers? p. 115. 

291. On what is the Board of Health lactometer based? 

p. 116. 

292. What is the standard temperature for specific 

gravity reading? p. 116. 

293. How much variation in the lactometer reading 

does one degree make? p. 116. 

294. What is the average specific gravity of milk? p. 

116. 

295. What is the effect of fat on the lactometer read- 

ing? p. 116. 

296. How much does each per cent, of fat lower the 

lactometer reading? p. 116. 

297. How do we find the solids not fat in milk? p. 

116. 

298. How low can solids not fat be in pure milk? p. 

117. 

299. If the standard of solids not fat be 8. 5% and we 

find but 7% present, what per cent, of water 
has been added to the milk? p. 117. 

300. What is the need of rubber boots in a cheese 

factory? p. 118. 

301. Where should small trinkets in a factory be 

placed? p. 120. 

302. What chemicals are good antiseptics, and how 

should they be used? p. 120. 

303. How may coal dust be prevented? p. 120. 

304. How should the outside of the factory be kept? 

p. 121. 



150 CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. 

305. What color should a factory be painted, and 

why? p. 121. 

CARE OF MILK. 

306. What was the old method of caring for milk, at 

the farm, before delivery to the factory? p. 
122. 

307. What objections are there for closing the milk up 

tight, and putting cold water around the milk 
can? p. 122. 

308. What is meant by aerating milk? p. 122. 

309. How is milk aerated? p. 122. 

310. Why is milk aerated? p. 123. 

311. Should the morning's milk be aerated? p. 123. 

312. Where should milk be aerated? p. 123. 

313. What would be the effect of airing milk in a foul 

smelling place? p. 123. 

314. What advantage is claimed for aerated milk? p. 

123. 

315. Why should milk not be cooled in cold fall 

weather? p. 123. 

316. What is the great cause of bad milk? p. 124. 

317. Why should the cow's udder and belly, and the 

milker's hands be washed? p. 124. 

318. Where do the cows get the bad bacteria? p. 

124. 

319. How should the barn be kept to secure good 

milk? p. 124. 

320. How should the milk cans and milk pails be 

cleaned? p. 124. 



CHEDDAR CHEESE MAKING. I 5 I 

321. What is the difficulty with old, patched up milk 

cans? p. 124. 

322. Why should wooden pails not be used for milk- 

ing in? p. 124. 

CHEESE FACTORY ASSOCIATION. 

323. On what two general plans are cheese factories 

operated? p. 126. 

324. Why do patrons in some factories pay a higher 

rate for making than stockholders? p. 128. 

325. Why is a test committee a good thing? p. 127. 



The author recommends the following dairy books: 

Dr. H. L. Russell's Dairy Bacteriology. 

This book was written by Dr. Russell for instruc- 
tional purposes in the subject indicated by the title 
in the Wisconsin Dairy School. It is a companion 
book to Cheddar Cheese Making. Price postpaid 
$1.00. Address Dr. H. L. Russell, Experiment 
Station, Madison, Wis. 

Adolph Schoenman's Milk=Test. 

Written for use by the Wisconsin Dairy School 
students. Price postpaid 75 cts. Address A. 
Schoenman, Plain, Sauk Co., Wis. 

Prof. F. W. WolPs Principles of Dairy Practice. 

A translation of Grotenfelt, the noted Finnish 
dairy authority. " Price postpaid $2.00. 

Dairy Calendar, by the same author, published annually. 

Prof. Woll has been assisted by prominent dairy- 
men in editing this neat little calendar, and it con- 
tains a large amount of information that every 
dairyman ought to have. Price $1.00 postpaid. 
Either of these books may be had by addressing 
Prof. F. W. Woll, Experiment Station, Madison,. 
Wis. 



A. J. DECKER & CO. 

No. 4 THIRD ST., 

FOND DU LAC, WIS. 

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OUTFITS AND SUPPLIES 



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Both Hand Power and Steam Motor, 
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AND ARE STATE AGENTS FOR 

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